Astrophysics in Action
by The Magic Bringer
Summary: Post Doomsday, pre COTG. What if the Doctor had a different companion? Say… Samantha Carter?
1. Prologue: Gridlock

**Astrophysics in Action**

**Post Doomsday. What if the Doctor had a different companion? Say… Samantha Carter? Crossover with Stargate: SG-1**

Samantha Jean Carter felt, for once in her life, like a complete failure. She wasn't usually one to lose herself in a bottle, but the feeling of complete and utter rejection had gotten too much for her. She'd been working on the Stargate program for the better part of two years, yet it had not been her who got it working. "An archaeologist," she muttered in disgust. "A bloody archaeologist."

"Here, here," said the man next to her, blown hair flapping on his forehead as he reached for a shot and downed it. "I'm a time traveller. I point and laugh at archaeologists."

Sam gave the (obviously drunk) Englishman a look of bemusement. He downed another shot.

Despite her own problems, and the five empty shot glasses that sat in front of her, she was concerned. "Are you alright?"

The man nodded. "Rose is gone," he said, as if this explained everything. "She was fantastic, she was here, now she's gone…I never told her I loved her," tears sparkled in his eyes, and Sam comfortingly patted his back, deducing that this 'Rose' was dead.

"I'm sure she knew," she said soothingly.

The man didn't respond to that, staring off into the distance. "All of time and space…" he mumbled under his breath, then shook himself.

"What about you?" he asked her, and she looked back, startled.

"What about me?"

The man tilted his head toward the many empty glasses in front of her. "Something's eating you,"

Sam sighed, not quite sure why she was about to spill her innermost thoughts to this man, but drawing breath into her mouth and changing it to words nonetheless. "Ever since I was a little girl and I could see the stars, I've wanted to see them even closer. Go to them, visit them. My Dad's in the Air Force, so joined up too. It's the quickest way to NASA, you know. Anyway, long story short, there was this mission that I should have been on—it should have been me! I'm the one who worked out how to program the damn thing, but no! A damn archaeologist does a stupid translation and I get sent back home and blow my chances of ever seeing to stars." She laughed into her drink, a singular tear tracking down her face. "It's all I've ever wanted to do, and I get set aside for an archaeologist who would probably be happier digging up ancient artefacts from Egypt."

The man nodded, sympathetic, and with horror Sam realised that she didn't even know his name, and she'd almost babbled classified information to him. She covered her mouth with her hand, then lowering it, blurted this last thought out mindlessly.

The man shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I'm not going to tell anyone, and it's not like you've told me your name either. I go by the Doctor."

"Sam Carter. Just the Doctor?" the fog that the alcohol had created in her mind allowed her to accept his passive nod.

Suddenly, the Doctor grinned maniacally. "So, Sam Carter, do you still want to see the stars?"

Sam nodded. "I'd give anything."

He grabbed her hand and led her out of the bar, and she allowed him. Her mind sent up warning signals when he began to lead her into a deserted alleyway, but the alcohol allowed her to go along with it anyway. There, in the middle of the alleyway, looking so out of place but so right, was a blue box, similar to a phone booth, that proudly proclaimed itself POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX. She had a vague recollection of seeing one on television at some point, remembered that they were from England, and wondered absently what an English phone booth was doing in an American alleyway. "This is the TARDIS. That stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. She's the last of her kind."

Sam stared at him incredulously. "You expect me to believe that this box is both a time machine and a spacecraft?"

The Doctor beamed at her. "Oh, she's very good this one, very smart. I like her." she couldn't quite ascertain who he was talking to, but she was sure it wasn't her. "That's exactly what I expect you to believe, Sam Carter. So what do you say? You missed out on your one trip to the stars - I'll take you. Just one trip, mind. You missed one, you get one."

Sam laughed. "You're nuts. I suppose you'll tell me you're an alien next,"

"Well I am," the Doctor said. "I've got two hearts and everything, if you don't believe me. Binary circulatory system." he paused, seeing her disbelieving gaze. "Here, feel!" he insisted suddenly, grabbing her hand and bringing it up to his chest.

Warily, she left it there for a moment, feeling the steady thump of his heartbeat. Then he moved her hand to the other side of his chest and she breathed a sigh of awe. "Holy Hannah!" she exclaimed.

He smiled, seeing that she was beginning to believe him. "Open the door," he instructed.

Sam reached for the handle and pulled it open, gaping in amazement at what she saw inside. "Holy Hannah, it's trans dimensional!" she exclaimed.

The Doctor grinned widely. "So, Sam Carter, what will it be?" he left the offer dangling openly in the air.

"There is no way I am passing up this chance," Sam expressed enthusiastically. "Only, maybe we could do it when I'm sober. I'd kinda like to remember it."

The Doctor shrugged. "That's reasonable, I suppose. Come in, I'll show you your room, and tomorrow, when you're sober, we'll take a trip to the stars." he still wasn't quite sure why he'd invited her—most of his companions proved themselves first—but still, he mused, on trip couldn't hurt.

* * *

When Sam awoke the next morning, she had an enormous headache and the sinking feeling that she'd done something incredibly stupid the night before, but she couldn't for the life of her recall exactly what. After a few seconds, she groaned: confirmation of her stupidity came when she realised that she was in an unfamiliar bed. Still, she was fully clothed, so that had to count for something—perhaps she hadn't been as stupid as she had first imagined. She attempted to cast her mind back, and vaguely remembered something about time travel, stars and aliens. Dismissing it as a dream, she moaned again. "I need an aspirin."

She stumbled from the bed, deciding that it was time to see whose house she had crashed last night, and whether she could get any explanation of what actually happened last night. Leaving she bedroom, she found herself in a long, winding corridor. "Hello?" she called warily, unsure which direction she should head in.

Suddenly, a man popped up from behind her. "Hello! You're up, I see. Have you thought about where you'd like to go, at all?"

Sam squinted at him. "Do you have any aspirin?"

"Oh, you've got a hangover. No aspirin, I'm afraid, I'm deathly allergic, even surpasses regeneration, and that would be great waste of three perfectly good lives. No, I don't even keep the stuff on board. I might have some paracetamol, or ibuprofen, though. Or, you could just take this." he offered her a small white pill.

"What is it?" she asked, regarding it warily.

"Nothing to worry about, just a generic painkiller, from the 43rd century. Perfectly safe, fast acting." he held out a glass of water. Sam hesitated for a moment, before seizing both the pill and the water, downing both quickly. Her headache instantly cleared, and her memories of the night before brightened, though they still remained a bit fuzzy.

"You're an alien," she stated and the Doctor nodded.

"This is a spaceship and a time machine." another nod.

"You're taking me on one trip?"

"Exact-a-mento!" he exclaimed enthusiastically, then frowned. "Another word that I will never use again. Any ideas about where you want to go?"

Sam shrugged. "No idea. It's not like I've ever left Earth before. You're the expert, take me somewhere amazing."

"Amazing, huh," the Doctor mused, pausing momentarily. "How about New Earth?"

"New Earth?" Sam queried in wonder.

The Doctor nodded. "New New York in New Earth—the future of the human race. Apple grass, flying cars and cat nuns."

Sam shrugged. "Sounds good to me,"

By this time they had made their way into the control room. Now, the Doctor was pulling various levers this way and that, pressing buttons and generally fiddling with the controls in a way that looked far too chaotic to actually work, but sure enough, seconds later a large whooshing sound began to emanate and something began moving up and down in the centre column. Seeing her looking, the Doctor began to explain. "That's the time rotor. The TARDIS is alive, it's an organic structure,"

Sam nodded in comprehension. "I might have known. The sheer amounts of energy required to maintain a constant dimensional fluctuation, stabilize and control a wormhole, not to mention travel in time would just be too incredible for a manmade structure, no matter how good it is. Organic structures are always so much more efficient. I assume it runs on energy naturally drawn from a rift of some sort, where the space-time continuum isn't quite as stable as it should be?"

The Doctor grinned at this impromptu spurt of technobabble. "Oh, I do like you," he affirmed enthusiastically as the time rotor stopped moving, signalling that their journey was complete. "Now then, year five billion and fifty-three, planet New Earth! Second hope of mankind! Fifty thousand light years from your old world, and we're slap bang in the middle of New New York. Although, technically it's the fifteenth New York from the original, so it's New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York. One of the most dazzling cities ever built."

The Doctor opened the door with a flourish as he pulled on his overcoat, and stood back to let Sam admire.

Her face fell.

"You asshole!" she swore. "I can't believe I believed you!" she was furious, deep disappointment sinking in her chest as she stared into a grotty alleyway. Rain was pouring down

The Doctor peered out, and frowned. "Oh. It seems that I've made a small error piloting," he reached for her hand, pulling her out of the TARDIS. "Come on, I'm sure we can find something interesting."

Sam made a disbelieving noise in the back of her throat. "I'm yet to see anything to indicate that this is anything other than Old Earth," she commented darkly as she followed to Doctor through a junk ridden street, past giant dumpsters and old laundry that hung on the line, slowly getting more and more drenched as the rain continued, creating pools of mud at their feet.

"Hold on, hold on. Let's have a look," from his coat pocket he pulled what looked a bit like a jerry rigged mag lite from his pocket, and pointed it at a dead screen he had spotted on a wall. Pressing a button, it began to emit a humming noise and blue light, accompanied by the sudden appearance of static on the screen. Giving up with the device, he replaced in his coat and banged the screen. It flickered to life, an image of a blonde woman flickering into view. It was a news report, Sam deduced as the woman finished her sentence. "and the driving should be clear and easy, with fifteen extra lanes open for the New New Jersey expressway." The image on the screen shifted to reveal the unfamiliar skyline of a gorgeous spired city resting on the coast of a large river, flying vehicles zipping through the air. Sam couldn't help but let out a gasp of awed amazement at the sight of it, her disbelief being firmly ditched to the back of her mind.

"That's more like it!" the Doctor exclaimed, oblivious to her awed reaction. "That's the New we had last time. This must be the lower levels. Down in the base of the tower, some sort of under-city."

"So… this is the slums?" Sam asked incredulous, but still happy.

"Much more interesting! It's all cocktails and glitter up there. This is the real city."

Sam laughed at his enthusiasm. "Alright then, Doctor. Show me the real city.

The Doctor was only to pleased to oblige, his good mood only improving by the now ceasing rain. As they continued walking, a man suddenly flipped open the top of a large green box, revealing a street vendors cart. As if catalysed by the first, many others did the same, appearing and shouting out their wares, vying for attention.

"Oh! You should have said. How long you been there? Happy! You want Happy!" shouted one.

Another interrupted. "Customers! Customers! We've got customers!"

A third cut her off, their voices competing for attention. "We're in business! Mother, open up the Mellow, and the Read!"

"Happy, Happy, lovely happy Happy!" - "Anger! Buy some Anger!" - "Get some Mellow, makes you feel all bendy and soft all day long!" - "Younger, them. They'll rip you off. Do you want some happy?"

Sam frowned. "Not for me. Doctor, are they seeling drugs?"

"Moods," the Doctor corrected sadly.

Sam laughed hollowly, nodding. They observed for a few minutes more, watching the alley fill with bedraggled sad and ill looking types, some of whom bought the drugs that the vendors were so eagerly offering. "So that's the human race five billion years in the future. Drugged up to the eyeballs."

With her words, two figures sprung up from behind her, carrying guns and dressed in dark clothing. One man grabbed her from behind, and her air force instincts and adrenaline kicked in. He attempted to throw an arm around her neck to drag her off, but she wriggled out of his grasp, kicking out underneath his legs and flooring him. His accomplice shoved a gun to her back, but Sam rolled her eyes and ripped it from her hands. "It's not even real!" she exclaimed with disgust, throwing it to the side.

The Doctor quickly rushed to Sam's aid, but neither of them noticed that the man had managed to get up. "Plan B," he whispered to his accomplice, and both of them simultaneously felt their necks being slapped and dropped unconscious to the ground.

* * *

When Sam awoke, she was lying in the alleyway, not having been moved at all. Cursing, but not wanting to make her way back to the TARDIS and give up yet - after all, the Doctor was her only lift home - she went back to the pharmacists and began to interrogate them about why they would have taken the Doctor.

* * *

At the same time, the Doctor was awakening in a vehicle, accompanied by the two kidnappers. In the front there was a blue screen showing a small line with "4-6-5-diamond-6" above it, presumably where he now was. The line was moving from Level 17 at the top of the screen on downward, edging closer to Level 21 at the bottom of the screen. He was surrounded by containers of pills and liquid, and the voices of his kidnappers were rumbling in the background. "Well, that's new." he said to himself. "Usually the companion's the one who wanders off and gets kidnapped." he reached for the token on his neck, and ripped it off, frowning in annoyance.

"So, who are you?" he questioned loudly, interrupting his captors conversation.

"Well, I'm Cheen, and this is Milo. And I swear we're sorry. We're really, really sorry. We just needed access to the fast line, but I promise, as soon as we arrive, we'll drop you off and you can go back and find your friend."

The Doctor didn't look any happier for the answer. "Yeah, about that, why me? You went for Sam first—so why'd you take me and not her? Not that I'm not glad you left her alone, but I've got to wonder."

"Well, she did put up a fight. And she knew our guns were fake. So we were thinking, that maybe she was in the police or something. And kidnapping is a crime, you know."

The Doctor was still entirely unsatisfied. He began to question them further, discovering that they were pregnant and that they were trying to get to Brooklyn, that the fog was exhaust fumes, that it was only ten miles away, and oh, that it was going to take six years. The Doctor was incredulous. "You have got to be kidding me. Six years? Why don't you just walk? Or get a bicycle? Bicycles are good—you don't even have to worry about traffic jams, there's no pollution and yu go faster than walking. What's not to love? Come to think of it though, it's been a long time since I've used one myself. Ah, well, when you've got a TARDIS, any other form of transport seems inferior."

As the Doctor rambled, Cheen rolled her eyes at Milo. "We should have picked someone quieter."

"Hey!" the Doctor interrupted, affronted. "I'll have you know that I was the very best person you could have picked to come along."

"Oh, and why's that?" Milo asked dryly.

The Doctor stood up, "Only that there's something very not right about all of this, and that I am going to fix it."

"Oh great, he's delusional too," Cheen snarked. "Just remember Milo, this was your great idea. I voted for the blonde."

* * *

Sam had headed back to the TARDIS in search of something that could help her to find the Doctor. The pharmacists had warned her that the air in the motorway would suffocate her in seconds flat if she went there as she was, so she was eager to avoid that possibility. She had just reached to door when she was interrupted by the appearance of a woman who looked like a cat. Surprised and confused, Sam could only stare.

"The Doctor," the cat growled, it's voice revealing it to be female. "Where is he?"

She was wearing a habit and carrying a gun the glowed green. Sam realised with a jolt that this must be on of the cat nuns that the Doctor had briefly mentioned.

"As far as I can tell, he's on the motorway. I've got to save him." Sam informed her.

The nun nodded sharply. "You've got to come with me. Then I'll go find the Doctor." She grabbed her wrist, and pressed a button on her green lit metal wristband, and intoned "Transport." Both of them vanished in a flash of white light, arriving in a large and dilapidated room. There was dust and junk everywhere. Sam sat on the floor, rubbing her bottom where she'd landed. Before Sam could get out a word, the cat nun had vanished, leaving Sam alone in the room. Except for… she suddenly noticed a giant head in a jar and let out a yelp of surprise. Once Sam had overcome her shock, she spoke to the head.

"Why am I here? What's happened?"

The giant head spoke, tiredly, slowly. "This is the Senate of New New York."

Sam looked around, and in alarm noticed that she was in a vast chamber comprising long rows of seats. In the seats were skeletons. Suddenly, Sam's trip to the future took on an even more sinister light. First, there'd been an attempted kidnapping. Now, a dead senate. A deep sense of horror filled her. "Holy Hannah, what happened to them?"

"Bliss," the giant head responded breathily. "It took seven minutes to destroy the world, twenty four years ago."

Sensing that the giant head didn't have enough energy to explain much further, Sam wandered around the chamber, searching for evidence. She knelt down, spotting a circular token with a half moon, just like the ones that the vendors had attempted to sell her earlier, like the sleep patch that had been placed on her neck.

"A deadly virus was in this drug," she hypothesised. "It quickly became airborne. All living things died, and after a while, so did the virus. But the walkways, the flyovers and the motorway—there's still living people there. They must have closed them down. Now that the danger's over, why haven't you reopened them?"

"Power." came the one word, strained response. The massive head in a jar was clearly reaching the end of its life, and Sam couldn't help but feel sad, even having known the thing for barely two minutes, it felt much longer.

Sam began to inspect what appeared to be the mainframe. "You've wired yourself to it!" she exclaimed in surprise. "The system is feeding off your life force." she inspected closer.

"I can probably get the residual energy, invert it and feed it through the electricity beds." she gnawed her lip in concentration, "but how?"

She began to survey the system, occasionally questioning the giant head about the function of a certain thing, receiving a mere nod as an answer. After having completely reviewed the system, she figured out how it was related to systems she recognised. Suddenly inspired, she hurriedly began to switch all the switched on the bank up to maximum, and once that was completed she rushed to a knob on the floor, rotating it. She flipped an enormous switch on the floor, and fell back in dismay as all the lights went out.

"The transformers must be blocked, any signal I give won't get through."

At that precise moment, the Doctor and the cat nun reappeared in a flash, the Doctor protesting wildly. "Oh! Rough teleport, Novice Hame. But you can go straight back down and teleport other people out, starting with Cheen and Milo. Oh, hello Sam. I see you got here. Actually, where is here?" he asked, looking around, no longer concerned with Hame's protests that she only had enough energy for the one trip.

"This is the Senate, Doctor," Sam said wearily.

At this point, Novice Hame took over the explanations, telling the Doctor all that Sam had surmised. The Doctor seemed devastated, before he rounded on Sam—grinning maniacally, as always—and began to interrogate her about what she'd done to the system.

Sam began to explain, indicating the giant head. The Doctor beamed happily. "The Face of Boe!" he exclaimed, and Sam mused to herself that the name was oddly apt.

"I knew you would come," came the Face's low, rumbling tones.

Novice Hame stepped in to explain. "Back in the old days, I was made his nurse, as penance for my sins. He's dying, now. He protected me from the virus by shrouding me in his smoke. But with no one to maintain it, the city's power died. The under city would have fallen into the sea. As your friend worked out, he's wired himself to the mainframe. He's giving his life force just to keep things running."

The Doctor shook his head, bewildered. "But there are planets out there. You could have called for help!"

"The last act of the Senate was to declare New Earth unsafe. The automatic quarantine lasts for one hundred years." explained Hame.

The Doctor nodded, sad and concerned. "So the two of you stayed here, on your own, for all these years."

"We had no choice." Novice Hame said resolutely.

The Doctor reached for her, touched her shoulder. "Yes, you did." A moment's quiet contemplation passed, before the Doctor began to inspect Sam's work, marvelling at her ability.

"Doctor," rasped the Face of Boe.

"Hold on, not now," he said, and instructed Sam to go turn a wheel near the Face of Boe.

"I give you my last," the giant face let out a long grinding breath, and all the consoles switched back on. The Doctor leapt up, illuminated.

"Hame, Look after him!" he instructed sharply as he turned to the enormous switch Sam had flicked earlier."Don't go dying on me, you big old fac. You've got to see this."

He flicked the switch, exclaiming, "The open road! Hah!

In the city, a gap was forming over the closed motorway. Above the hundreds of lanes of cars, the doors to the over city were opening, crashing and creaking as each barrier fell away.

As the last of the doors opened, leaving the tunnel completely open, the Doctor jerry rigged a system to make himself appear on the monitor of the screens in front of every car.

"Sorry, no Sally Calypso, she was just a hologram. My name's the Doctor," he began. "And this is an order. Everyone drive up. Right now. I've opened the roof of the motorway. Come on. Throttle those engines. Drive up. All of you, the whole under-city. Drive up, drive up, drive up! Fast! We've got to clear that fast lane. Drive up and get out of the way."

As the Doctor finished the transmission, seeing that Milo and Cheen had safely made their way out of the fast lane and away from the macra, the case that contained the Face of Boe began to crack, and the Doctor looked over to him, his face falling. Sam and Novice Hame were united at his side, realising that his end was near. He came to kneel in front of him, following Ham and Sam's lead.

"My lord gave his life to save the city," Novice Hame proclaimed, despairing. "And now he's dying."

"No, don't say that. Not old Boe. Plenty of life left." The Doctor denied.

"It's good to breathe the air once more. Everything has its time. You know that, old friend, better than most."

"They say that the Face of Boe will speak his final secret to a traveller." Noice Hame reminded him.

The Doctor was clawing at grief, even if he couldn't acknowledge it yet. "Yeah, but not yet. Who needs secrets, eh?"

"I have seen so much. Perhaps too much. I am the last of my kind — as you are the last of yours, Doctor."

The Doctor was absolutely desperate by this point. He didn't want this at all. "That's why we have to survive. Both of us. Don't go."

"I must. But know this, Time Lord. You are not alone."

Though before it had seemed as though the Doctor would weep, now he was astounded, he stared, uncomprehending, as the Face of Boe's eyes closed for the last time. Sam looked on with respect, tears for a person she had barely known springing from her eyes, and Novice Hame began to sob in earnest. Sam was the first to stand, and the Doctor got up after a moment to put an arm around her shoulders. Novice Hame was still sobbing bitterly on the ground, having lost what had been her only company for twenty four years.

* * *

They were back in the alley where Sam and the Doctor first met the pharmacists, the two travellers sauntered through again. It was deserted, all the shops having closed down. While on the screen, the Doctor had revealed what had happened to all the other people, and demanded that all such pharmacists closed down. Apparently, they had been scared enough and were all out of business.

"Happy?" Sam asked softly.

"Happy happy."

The Doctor inspected one of the empty booths. "New New York can start again. And they've got Novice Hame. Just what every city needs — cats in charge! Come on, time we were off."

He began to stroll away, but Sam stood still. "Doctor," she said quietly. "All of this… despite the happy ending, I can't help but wonder. Isn't it such a waste of life? And me! What do I do now? Go back home and pretend that I haven't seen this? That I haven't seen a world that was almost completely annihilated? I feel so helpless. Isn't there anything I can do?"

The Doctor walked back to her, putting his arm around her shoulder. "Sam, what you did today, how you fixed the power—you didn't even need me! If I hadn't arrived, you would have saved all those people, just you and the Face of Boe. And you're wondering what you can do! Saving the world. Now that's nothing short of brilliant." He paused, as if deciding whether to tell her something.

"I've got ghosts in my past. I'm not always pleasant to be around. The Face of Boe… you heard him. I'm the last of my kind.

I'm not just a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords. I don't know what he meant by 'you are not alone,' but he was wrong. There's no one else."

Sam stared for a moment, trying to imagine the horror. "What happened?"

"There was a war. My people fought a race called the Daleks, for the sake of all creation. And they lost. They lost. Everyone lost. They're all gone now. My family, my friends, my planet. But you know what, Sam Carter?"

Sam shook her head, a lump in her throat. "That doesn't happen to humans. The most resilient species in all of space time. You saved the world, your future, today, and you're needed in your present."

Sam was feeling much better about herself when she and the Doctor walked back into the TARDIS.

**A/N: I know it's not brilliant. Keep in mind that it is my first Doctor Who fic, (because that other little thing doesn't really count) and my first Stargate fic. Also, I'm taking suggestions for titles, because this one just sucks. Also, should this be a oneshot or should I continue it? Thanks a bunch for reading.**


	2. Planet of the Ood

**AN: **This chapter relies heavily on the transcript of the episode Planet of the Ood, obtained from http : / / who - transcripts . atspace . story is going to be a combination of the episodes in series three and four of Doctor Who, in a completely different order. I have decided to completely scrap some of the episodes, having them not happen in this universe at all, and other episodes will not be written explicitly. Just for reference, the episodes that will not happen at all are as follows: Smith and Jones, The Lazarus Experiment, 42, Turn Left, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End. With that in mind, enjoy the Doctor and Sam Carter's second adventure in:

**Astrophysics in Action**

**Post Doomsday. What if the Doctor had a different companion? Say… Samantha Carter? Crossover with Stargate: SG-1**

**Chapter 1: Planet of the Ood**

"So, Sam, I've been thinking," began the Doctor as he tugged a lever on the TARDIS. "I know I said only one journey… but I thought maybe you might like to stay for a few more?"

Sam stared at him in amazement, a full grin encompassing her face almost immediately. "I would absolutely love to!"

"Great!" grinned the Doctor. "Now only one thing remains… where to next?"

Sam shrugged. "Like I said before, you're the expert, not me."

The Doctor thought for a few seconds, before flicking something on the control panel and hitting something else. "Set the controls to random! Mystery tour. Outside that door could be any planet, anywhere, anywhen in the whole wide expanse of space time."

Sam's face was flushed with excitement, and as the TARDIS joltily landed, she headed for the door, pulling it open in excitement. A blast of cold air hit her and she slammed it shut. "It's snow and ice out there."

"Is that a problem?"

"Well, no. But I would like a coat or something. Humans have a higher core body temperature than Time Lords, you know."

The Doctor nodded, then frowned. "How do you know?" he said suddenly.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Please. Your hand is always freezing. You're not fooling anyone."

"Oh," he responded lamely, handing her a coat. "Shall we?"

Sam opened the door again, and stepped out onto the planet. It was snowing heavily, and the wind howled angrily as it whipped past them. She shivered slightly, despite her coat, it was still a bit cold.

"You'll warm up," the Doctor told her, seeing her shiver as he joined her, and she nodded. "Snow! Ah! Real snow! Proper snow at last! That's more like it. Lovely. What do you think?"

"It's beautiful," Sam breathed, admiring the view of ice and snow on a barren landscape.

They stood admiring it for a moment, then a rocket flew overhead. "Let's see where it's going," enthused the Doctor, already hurrying in the direction of the rocket.

Sam followed him, laughing at his enthusiasm. As they walked in the direction of the rocket, Sam told the Doctor stories about her childhood and he listened with avid interest. She was in the middle of a story about Mark sneaking biscuits from their Aunt's house when without warning, he stopped, holding up a hand to silence her.

"Hold on, can you hear that?"

Sam shook her head. "Sorry, Doctor. I can't hear anything."

"It's a noise, like a song. You're sure you can't hear it?" his eyes scanned the horizon, and, spotting something in the distance, he began to run. "Over there!"

When he reached the place that he had indicated, Sam realised that there was body lying half covered in snow. However, the body was unlike anything she'd ever seen before. Its face was a mass of tentacles, almost serpentine, and the skin tough and ribbed. Beyond this, little was visible. "What is it?" she asked with a mixture of curiosity and dread in her stomach.

"An Ood. He's called an Ood."

"What are the Ood?" Sam asked, feeling that there was something he was leaving out.

Pulling out a stethoscope, the Doctor sighed, not looking at her. "Sam, not now. Give me a hand, will you?"

"Sorry," Sam apologised, making a note to get a proper explanation later but recognising the urgency of the situation. At this point, the Doctor was moving the stethoscope about the Ood's chest.

"I don't know where the heart is. I don't know if he's got a heart. Talk to him. Keep him going," he explained.

Sam awkwardly knelt beside the Ood. "What's your name?"

"Designated Ood Delta 50."

Sam frowned at the name, glancing at the Doctor, but he refused to acknowledge her concerns, too wrapped up in diagnosing the Ood's problem.

"I'm Sam. This is the Doctor. We're from Earth."

The Ood made no response. For a few minutes, Sam spoke quietly to the Ood, attempting to maintain communication, but rarely getting much of a response. Eventually, the Doctor came up with a diagnosis.

"You've been shot."

At this pronouncement, the Ood finally spoke. "The Circle…" it began.

"Go on," Sam encouraged, well aware that although speaking could cause him pain, it could also help them learn exactly what had happened and why, and therefore help prevent it's reoccurrence.

"The circle must be broken."

"The circle? What do you mean?" Sam asked, urgency in her tone.

The Doctor continued Sam's line of questioning. "Delta 50, what circle? Delta 50? What circle?"

Delta 50's eyes snapped open, the blood red colour causing Sam and the Doctor to scramble back for a moment, as the Ood snarled and sat up. As the last syllable of the snarl faded, the Ood collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

"He's gone," said the Doctor, and Sam stepped forward, toward the body. "Careful," he warned.

Sam nodded, holding herself back from touching the dead body. "Infection, right?" she didn't really need the Doctor's confirmation. "We were too late. What do we do, do we bury him?"

"The snow will take care of that."

It didn't sit quite right with Sam, letting a body be buried by the snow rather than burying it with honour, but it wasn't her place to contradict what the Doctor wanted. Still, now more than ever she needed an answer to her question. "Will you explain what an Ood is now?"

"They're servants , of humans in the 42nd century. Mildly telepathic. That was the song, it was his mind calling out."

"I couldn't hear it," Sam said, "so how does telepathy work?"

The Doctor launched into a brief explanation, concluding with "…exercises usually dormant synaptic function, but can eventually be learnt."

Sam nodded her understanding, and the Doctor returned his mind to the fallen Ood. "His eyes turned red," he stated, sounding worried.

"Which means?" Sam queried, still unable to tear her gaze from its lifeless body.

"Trouble. Come on," he said, walking away. Sam dashed to catch up with him. "The Ood are harmless and completely benign. Except the last time I met them, there was this force, like a stronger mind, powerful enough to take them over."

"What sort of force?"

"Long story."

"Well, tell it then," Sam prompted.

The Doctor walked in silence for a moment, before he spoke, "It was the devil."

Sam scoffed. "Yeah, right. Since when is the Devil real?"

"I know, I know," the Doctor said, waving a hand. "I sound like I'm completely bonkers. But it really happened."

"Right," was all Sam had to say on the matter, her tone conveying her continued scepticism.

Nonetheless, the Doctor continued to hypothesise out loud. "Must be something different this time, though. Something closer to home."

He peered curiously over a bluff, waving Sam over. Below them was the base of Ood Operations. "A-ha! Civilization!"

In a rush, he grabbed Sam's hand and they jumped over the edge, heading toward the centre of the operations. As they drew closer, they saw a group of people gathered around a woman in business attire and an Ood outside a warehouse.

The woman began to speak. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Ood-Sphere and isn't it bracing? Here are your information packs with vouchers, 3D tickets and a map of the complex." An Ood began to pass out the aforementioned items. "My name's Solana, Head of Marketing. I'm sure we've all spoken on the vid-phone. Now if you'd like to follow me,"

At this point, Sam and the Doctor arrived, their breath coming in small gasps. "Sorry, sorry! We're late! Don't mind us! Hello. The guards let us through."

"And you would be?" asked Solana, not at all happy with the interruption.

The Doctor held up his psychic paper. "The Doctor and Sam Carter."

"Representing the Carter Corporation, PLC Limited, Intergalactic," Sam added at the end, and the Doctor smiled at her happily for her quick thinking.

To her credit, Solana looked apologetic. "Must have fallen off my list. My apologies, it won't happen again. Now then, Dr Carter, Mrs Carter, if you'd like to come with me.

The Doctor looked at her with a shocked expression on his face. "Oh, no, no, no. We're not married."

Sam nodded in affirmation of this. "No, he's uh, he's my brother. Family business."

"Exactly!" exclaimed the Doctor, relieved. "She's my sister. Family business."

Solana didn't seem to care one way or the other. "Of course, my mistake. Here is your information pack. Vouchers inside." She handed the pack to the Doctor, and Sam began to internally rant about sexism in the future, pulling it out of his hands and looking through it quickly.

Solana was still talking. "Now, if you'd like to come with me, the executive suites are nice and warm."

Just as Solana finished talking, an alarm sounded.

"Ooh, what's that? Sounds like an alarm." sid the Doctor brightly, pausing before he entered.

"It's just a siren for the end of the work shift. Now then, this way! Quick as you can!" Solana ushered them all inside, the smile dropping from her face as she wondered what was going on.

Once they reached a showroom, Solana began a speech extolling the virtues of the Ood, and more specifically, having one.

"As you can see, the Ood are happy to serve and we keep them in facilities of the highest standards. Here at the Double-O , that's Ood Operations , we like to think of the Ood as our trusted friends. We keep the Ood healthy, safe and educated. We don't just breed the Ood, we make them better. Because at heart, what is an Ood... but an extension of us? If your Ood is happy, then you'll be happy too."

"I've heard better and more convincing speeches at high school," Sam sidelined to the Doctor as the rest of the buyers applauded.

Solana began to speak once more. "I'd now like to point out a new innovation from Ood Operations. We've introduced a variety package with the Ood translator ball. You can now have the standard setting , How are you today, Ood?"

An Ood responded in a normal voice. "I'm perfectly well, thank you."

"Or perhaps after a stressful day, a little something for the gentlemen. How are you, Ood?"

Another Ood spoke this time, and in seductive tones that made Sam's skin creep. "All the better for seeing you."

"And the comedy classic option. Ood, you dropped something."

A third Ood responded in a perfect imitation of Homer Simpson. "D'oh!" Everyone laughed but Sam frowned, unease churning in her gut.

"All that for only five additional credits. The details are in your brochures. Now, there's plenty more food and drink, so don't hold back."

The Doctor put on his glasses and headed to the control board where he switched on the screen while Sam got a drink, then joined him as the screen showed their location.

"Ah, got it. The Ood-Sphere. I've been to this solar system before , years ago. Ages. Close to the planet Sense-Sphere. Let's widen it out... the year 4126. That is the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire." He announced all of this very quickly, leaving Sam bug eyed in surprise.

"Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire? 4126? When was the first one? What happened to it?" she enquired, her eyes wide with surprise.

The Doctor looked at her disapprovingly. "Now, Sam, you know I can't tell you that!"

Sam sighed. "Alright, alright. Can you tell me what Earth's like now?"

The Doctor shrugged. "It's a bit full, I suppose. The Empire reaches across three galaxies, though."

Sam snorted in laughter for a second, and at the Doctor's look, elaborated. "Everyone at home is always going on about how the world is going to end: pollution, nuclear war, and recently there's been a lot of talk about global warming-"

"Trust me, it gets worse," the Doctor interjected.

"-yet here we are: everywhere, and Earth still intact." Her spiel finished, she pointed at the red dots. "So what are these?"

"Ood distribution centres," the Doctor replied succinctly.

"And they're across three galaxies? The Ood don't get any say in this at all?" She didn't wait for the Doctor's reply, waling over to and Ood. "Tell me, are all Ood enslaved? Or are there free Ood somewhere?"

"All Ood are born to serve. Otherwise we would die."

Sam frowned. "Surely you can't have always been like that. A subservient race couldn't exist naturally, they'd have been eliminated in the evolutionary process, survival of the fittest. What were you like before the humans?"

The Ood's head jerked slightly and Sam and the Doctor listened intently for the response.

"The Circle."

The Doctor jumped in eagerly. "What do you mean? What circle?"

"The circ, the circle, is—," but the Ood was cut of by Solana's reappearance.

"Ladies and gentlemen. All Ood to hospitality stations, please." All of the Ood left, and the Doctor took off his glasses, reaching into his pocket for the map of the complex.

"I've had enough of the schmoozing. Do you fancy going off the beaten track?"

Sam shrugged. "Works for me."

"Great!" the Doctor enthused.

Having wandered away from the group, Sam and the Doctor had found a locked gate, but this was only a temporary setback, as the Doctor swiftly pulled out his sonic screwdriver and opened the lock with a soft buzzing and a click. An announcement came over the PA. "Ood Shift 8 commencing. I repeat, Ood Shift 8 commencing."

The Doctor opened the gate, and he and Sam enetered, finding themselves in a part of the complex that was closed to visitors. The climbed up some steps and looked down into an open area where the Ood were being marched. One fell to its knees, and a man walke over to it, barking commands and cracking a whip. "Get up. I said, get up!"

Sam was disgusted. "So much for servants – this is slavery." You said you've met them before, why did you let this happen?"

The man was still yelling at the Ood, who painfully made its way to its feet.

The Doctor swallowed, a similar look of disgust on his face. "Last time I met the Ood, I never thought, never asked..."

"That's not like you."

"I was busy. So busy I couldn't save them. I had to let the Ood die. I reckon I owe them one."

Sam was still unhappy with his answer, but she could hear that he did seem to sincerely regret his actions, so she decided not to bother him about it further, instead turning her attention back to the action, as two more men and an Ood walked across the open space.

"That looks like the boss," she observed.

"Let's keep out of his way. Come on."

* * *

The Doctor and Sam were walking in front ot he warehouses, the Doctor scrutinising them map of the complex and Sam looking around at her surroundings warily. "Doctor," she said suddenly, putting a hand on his shoulder to prevent him from going further, then using her other hand to indicate a door.

He grinned at her, and opened the door with his sonic screwdriver.

"I've got to get one of them," Sam muttered under her breath as they entered the room filled with shipping containers. Above them, a giant metallic claw moved along a track in the ceiling lifting and moving the containers.

"Ood Export. You see? Lifts up the containers, takes 'em to the rocket ships. Ready to be flown out all over the three galaxies." The Doctor pointed to the claw.

"Are you saying that these containers are filled with Ood?" Sam asked, once again horrified at the treatment of the Ood.

"Exactly," the Doctor confirmed grimly.

The Doctor opened the nearest container and they stood in the doorway. The Ood stood in formation inside the container.

Sam wrinkled her nose from the smell, but didn't say anything. She looked around, estimating that there were at least one hundred Ood in this container, probably the same in the others.

"So this 'Great and Bountiful' Human Empire is built on Slavery," she noted bitterly.

The Doctor shrugged. "It's not that different from your time."

"I don't have any slaves," Sam protested.

The Doctor's face remained impassive, "Who do you think made your clothes?"

"You know, I'm not sure I like this travelling with you thing. You've only shown me how terrible humans will be in the future, so far, and insulted me. Is that why you like to travel with humans? So you can show them how terrible they are, how terrible their future is?"

"Sorry," said the Doctor, sounding repentant.

"Well, just think a minute before you speak."

The Doctor didn't acknowledge her advice, instead addressing the Ood. "I don't understand, the door was open, Why didn't you just run away?"

"For what reason?"

"You could be free." Sam suggested gently.

"I do not understand the concept."

Sam gazed interestedly at the translator ball clutched in its hands. "What is it with that Persil ball? They're not born with it, so why do they have to be all plugged in?"

"Ood, tell me, does "the circle" mean anything to you?"

All the Ood responded in unison. "The circle must be broken."

Sam took a step back. "Whoa, that's weird."

"But what is it? What is the circle?"

The Ood responded as before.

"Why?"

Once again, the Ood spoke, perfectly synchronised. "So that we can sing."

Suddenly, the man they had seen with the whip appeared with took guards, and spoke into a communications device. "Mr Halpen, I'm in Ood cargo. I found your unwanted guests."

He turned to the guards. "Go!"

He hit a button, alarms beginning to blare.

The Doctor turned to Sam. "That's our cue, come on!"

They began to run through the maze of shipping containers. Sam spotted a door, and stopped, but the Doctor didn't notice and continued. "Doctor," Sam yelled, catching his attention. "There's a door over here!"

At that moment, the door opened and the guards rushed in. The Doctor cam running back toward them.

"Don't move!" the guards ordered Sam. "Stay where you are!"

The guards grabbed Sam, attempting to shove her into a container. She twisted around, knocking one out, but that just brought an onslaught of more. Overwhelmed by their numbers, she was shoved in, and the Doctor pushed in beside her.

"Keep them there for now," they heard one of the men order, followed by an order to withdraw.

"Can you help us?" The Doctor asked one of the Ood breathlessly.

It raised its head, eyes gleaming red.

"Shit," swore Sam, similar thoughts running through the Doctor's head.

"We're friends!" the Doctor hastened to assure them, working on the door with his sonic screwdriver, to no avail.

For the next thirty seconds, they frantically attempted an escape while just outside the door they heard the man – Kess, he was called – debating over the communications about whether to let them out, but eventually deciding that Mr Halpen's desire for them to stay alive was more important than his desire to see them dead.

"Unlock the container," he ordered reluctantly, and the door fell open.

"Well, that's a relief," Sam grinned as she stepped out of danger and she and the Doctor exchanged a celebratory hug. Then she looked back at the container of Ood and gasped. "Holy Hannah!"

The Doctor turned at her exclamation, then echoed it. The red-eyes had escaped, and were killing all the guards.

Kess was frantic, hurriedly barking orders at the soldiers. "Red alert! Fire!"

At his words they opened fire on the Ood, their bodies falling limply to the ground. The Doctor and Sam took the opportunity to escape as another container opened and more Ood exited. "Shoot to kill!" they heard Kess barking at the soldiers, panic in his tone.

The Doctor and Sam escaped the warehouse, followed by Solana. They ran a decent distance before even stopping for breath.

Sam shook her head and addressed Solana. "Do the people back on Earth know how you treat the Ood? If they knew what was going on here, there'd be outrage."

"Don't be stupid. Of course they know, but I think you'll find that those in need of servants are often willing to… forget… how the servants are treated."

"They know how you treat the Ood?"

"They don't ask. Same thing." Solana dismissed the Doctor's question.

"Right," said the Doctor, a look of contemplation on his face for a moment. "Solana, the Ood aren't born like this. We know that much. What does the company do to make them obey?"

"That has nothing to do with me." Solana stated her tone prickly.

"What, because you don't ask?"

Solana ignored the Doctor's jibe. "That's Dr Ryder's territory."

"Where is he? What part of the complex?" he held out the map, and Sam watched on in curiosity. "I could help with the red-eye. Now show me!"

Solana paused for a long while, before drawing breath and yelling loudly. "They're over here! Guards, they're over here!"

"Well, that worked!" Sam remarked sarcastically to the Doctor as they both ran off, Kess' voice sounding in the background. "Male and female suspects escaping. Westbridge corridor."

Solana spoke into her comms device, sounding stunned. "Mr Halpen, I found the Doctor. He's heading for Ood Conversion."

The reply was swift. "On my way."

Spotting guards, the Doctor and Sam changed direction. "This way!" instructed the Doctor, running. They found themselves out the front of another warehouse and stopped.

"Oh, can you hear it? I didn't need the map. I should've listened!"

He didn't explain anything to Sam, but opened the door with the sonic screwdriver, pulled them inside and locked it.

"You've locked us in!" Sam yelped. "Do you know how dangerous that could be?" her military training was roaring loudly at the back of her mind, telling her that none of this was good at all.

The Doctor shushed her. "New planet, new rules. Listen. Listen, listen, listen, listen."

Going down steps quietly, they discovered cages. "Oh, my head!" the Doctor brought a hand to his temple, rubbing it.

"Are you alright?"

"Can't you hear it? The singing?"

Sam shook her head, and they observed the Ood, huddled closely together in one of the cages. The Doctor switched on a light. "There's something different about these ones."

The Doctor nodded. "That's because they're natural-born Ood. Unprocessed. Before they're adapted to slavery. Unspoiled."

He squatted in front of the cage, and Sam followed suit. "That's their song."

"I can't hear it."

"Do you want to?"

Sam turned to face the Doctor. "Yes."

"It's the song of captivity."

Sam hesitated. "Okay."

"Face me," she did and he placed his fingertips on her temples. "Open your mind. That's it. Hear it, Sam... Hear the music."

Sam gasped, facing the Ood with tears streaming down her face.

"It's unbearable."

"Do you want me to take it away?"

Sam shook her head. "Leave it, for now."

The Doctor used the sonic screwdriver on the cage while Sam adjusted to the song, the tears drying up on her face. She heard and noise, and turned to the Doctor. "They're breaking in."

"Ah, let 'em." said the Doctor dismissively, entering the cage. The Ood attempted to shuffle away, but the Doctor persisted. "What are you holding?" the Ood looked at him shyly.

Sam approached them, now used to the song, and stood beside him. "We're not going to hurt you. We're friends. Sam and the Doctor."

"Look at me, let me see," wheedled the Doctor, and the Ood warily stepped forward. "That's it. That's it, go on. Go on,"

The Ood held out his cupped hands, removing the top one to reveal a small ball, looking suspiciously like a brain.

"It's a brain. A hindbrain. The Ood are born with a secondary brain." Sam couldn't seem to get past that fact.

The Doctor continued her thought. "Like the amygdala in humans, it process memory and emotion. You get rid of that, you wouldn't be Sam anymore. You'd be like an Ood. A processed Ood."

"One flew over the cuckoo's nest," Sam acknowledged. "The company lobotomises them and replaces it with a translator. I agreed to come with you, Doctor, because I thought it would be so wonderful out here. I want to go home."

"Oh!" the Doctor was stunned by her wish, and didn't quite know what to say. They didn't get much of a chance to dwell on it, as Halpen and the others arrived.

"They're with the Ood, sir," a guard advised.

The Doctor slammed the cage shut. "What are you gonna do, then? Arrest me? Lock me up? Well, you're too late! Hah!"

The Doctor and Sam found themselves being handcuffed to a pole by two guards in Halpen's office.

"Why don't you just come out and say it? _FOTO_ activists."

"If that's what Friends of the Ood are trying to prove, then yes."

Halpen was dismissive. "The Ood were nothing without us , just animals roaming around on the ice."

Sam cried out. "Oh, God. If you could hear them, you wouldn't say that!"

"They welcomed it! It's not as if they put up a fight."

The Doctor shook his head angrily at the sheer stupidity of the statement. "You idiot! They're born with their brain in their hands, don't you see? That makes them peaceful! They've got to be because a creature like that would have to trust anyone it meets."

Halpen didn't react to that at all. "The system's worked for 200 years. All we've got is a rogue batch. But the infection is about to be sterilized." He spoke into his comms device. "Mr Kess, how do we stand?"

A scratchy voice came back, clearly audible in the office. "Canisters primed, sir. As soon as the core heats up, the gas is released. Give it 200 marks... and counting."

"You're going to gas them?!"

"Kill the livestock. The classic foot-and-mouth solution. Still works."

"Foot-and-mouth?" Sam asked the Doctor, but he shook his head.

Alarms began to blare.

"What the hell?" Halpen clearly didn't know what was going on.

Halpen, Ryder, and Sigma, Halpen's Ood exited the office, leaving Sam and the Doctor handcuffed.

Halpen, Ryder and the guards returned after only a minute or two. "Change of plan."

"No reports of trouble off-world, sir. It's still contained to the Ood-Sphere."

"Then we've got a public duty to stop it before it spreads."

Neither Sam nor the Doctor could follow the conversation. "What's happening?"

"Everything you wanted, Doctor. No doubt there'll be a full police investigation once this place has been sterilized so I can't risk a bullet to the head. I'll leave you to the mercies of the Ood." He headed to the door without another word.

"_B_ut, Mr Halpen, there's something else, isn't there? Something we haven't seen."

Halpen stopped, and Sam turned to look at the Doctor. "What do you mean?"

"The creature couldn't survive with a separate forebrain and hindbrain, they'd be at war with themselves. There's got to be something else, a third element. Am I right?"

"Again, so clever."

"It's got to be connected to the red-eye. What is it?"

Halpen looked the Doctor straight in the eye. "_I_t won't exist for very much longer. Enjoy your Ood."

With that, the party left, and once they were gone, Sam and the Doctor set about trying to free themselves.

After a while, Sam huffed in frustration. "You wouldn't happen to have met Houdini, would you?"

"Nope," said the Doctor.

"Don't you have some way of escaping?"

The Doctor looked sheepish. "These are really good handcuffs! Besides, shouldn't your military training cover this kind of thing?"

"Well, not exactly," Sam protested. "And these _are_ really good handcuffs."

The door opened and the Doctor and Sam stopped their struggles when they saw the Ood standing there. The Ood advanced.

"No, we're friends!"

"We want to help you – the circle must be broken!" Sam recalled with a jolt, and began to repeat that phrase over and over, while the Doctor repeated their names and 'friends' frantically.

The Ood came closer, and the Doctor and Sam hastened their speech even more.

"Doctor, Sam, friends!" – "The circle must be broken!"

The Ood held out their translator balls but stopped mere inches away from the pair. The translator balls switched off and the Ood held their heads in their hands. One lifted its head, eyes normal.

"Doctor. Sam. Friends," the Ood chorused in unison.

Sam breathed a sigh of relief and the Doctor whooped. "Yes, that's us! Friends! Oh, yes!"

The Doctor and Sam ran down the stairs and across the compound, dodging the fighting. The Doctor paused, trying to get his bearings.

"I don't know where it is! I don't know where they've gone!"

"What are we looking for?"

They continued running while the Doctor answered. "Might be underground, like some sort of cave or a cavern or something."

The Doctor and Sam were thrown to the ground by an explosion.

"All right?"

Sam nodded, and when the smoke cleared, they saw that Sigma was standing there. He lead them to the warehouse, and once inside, the Doctor and Sam saw the final piece of the puzzle: a giant brain, kept within an energy field, pulsing in the centre of the room. "_T_he Ood brain. Now it all makes sense. That's the missing link. The third element, binding them together. Forebrain, hindbrain and this. The telepathic centre. It's a shared mind... connecting all the Ood in song."

Sam heard the distinctive click of a weapon. They turned to see Halpen, holding a gun at their heads.

"Cargo. I can always go into cargo. I've got the rockets, I've got the sheds. Smaller business. Much more manageable without livestock."

Ryder interjected into Halpen's maddened rambles. "He's mined the area."

"You're going to kill it."

"They found that thing centuries ago beneath the northern glacier."

While Halpen was talking the Doctor whispered in Sam's ear. "Those pylons."

"In a circle. 'The circle must be broken.'" Sam quoted with sudden understanding.

"Dampening the telepathic field, stopping the Ood from connecting for 200 years. "

Halpen looked at Sigma with betrayal on his face. "And you, Ood Sigma, you brought them here. I expected better.

Sigma moved to stand beside Halpen. "My place is at your side, sir."

"Still subservient. Good Oo—," but he couldn't finish his sentence.

Sam ignored hi, speaking instead to the Doctor. "If the circle's still intact, why did the Ood start breaking out?"

"Maybe it's taken centuries to adapt. The subconscious reaching out."

At this point, Ryder spoke up. "But the process was too slow, had to be accelerated. You should never have given me access to the controls, Mr Halpen. I lowered the barrier to its minimum. Friends of the Ood, sir. It's taken me ten years to infiltrate the company. And I succeeded."

"Yes. Yes, you did."

Halpen reached to push Ryder over the railing, but Sam grabbed his wrist just in time, pulling him back over. A minor struggle ensued, but eventually Ryder came to stand by the Doctor and Sam.

Halpen held up his gun to fire at Ryder. _"_Now then, can't say I've ever shot anyone before... can't say I'm gonna like it, but, uh, it's not exactly a normal day, is it? Still..."

Sigma interrupted him. "Would you like a drink, sir?"

Halpen laughed. "I think hair loss is the least of my problems right now, thanks."

Sigma stood in front of the trip, blocking them from Halpen's weapon, and held out a glass. "Please have a drink, sir."

The Doctor put a hand on Sigma's shoulder.

"If, if you're gonna stand in their way, I'll shoot you too." His last words came out with some difficulty, almost in slow motion.

"Please have a drink, sir."

Halpen gasped for breath. "Have, have you... poisoned me?"

"Natural Ood must never kill, sir."

"What have you given him?" asked Ryder.

"Ood-graft suspended in a biological compound."

Sam looked like she was on the verge of understanding, but not quite there, and Halpen looked entirely confused. "What the hell does that mean?"

"Oh dear."

"Tell me!" Halpen demanded, frantic.

The Doctor launched into a spiel. "Funny thing, the subconscious. Takes all sorts of shapes. It came out in the red-eye as revenge. It came out in the rabid Ood as anger. And then there was patience. All that intelligence and mercy focused on Ood Sigma. How's the hair loss, Mr Halpen? They've been preparing you for a very long time. And now you're standing next to the Ood brain. Mr Halpen, can you hear it? Listen."

Halpen could hear the song that Sam and the Doctor were still listening to.

"What have you, I'm... not—," he never finished his sentence. Sigma stepped out of the way as Halpen dropped the gun, gripping his head and crying in agony. He pulled at his scalp, and it cam away to reveal and Ood head underneath. Tentacles came out of his mouth, and he made an odd gurgling noise then he coughed, his brain falling out into his hands.

"_H_e has become Ood-kind and we will take care of him." Sigma declared.

There was a loud beeping, reminding them of the impending detonation. The Doctor turned of the detonators, before waving Ryder forward. "That's better. And now... Ood Sigma, will you allow him the honour?"

"It is his, should he so desire," Sigma confirmed.

The Doctor handed Ryder the sonic screwdriver, and he went to the equipment powering the field, turning it off.

"I can hear it!" Ryder exclaimed, hearing the Ood song for the first time.

The Ood were cured, after 200 years of slavery they were free.

* * *

The Ood were standing with Sam and the Doctor outside the TARDIS. Ryder joined them.

"The message has gone out. That song resonated across the galaxies. Everyone heard it. Everyone knows. The rockets are bringing them back. The Ood are coming home," he informed them.

"We thank you, Doctor, Sam, friends of Ood-kind. And we thank you, Dr Ryder, as well. We ask you now, will you stay? There is room in the song for you."

The Doctor scratched behind his ear. "Oh, I've, I've sorta got a song of my own, thanks."

"I think your song must end soon."

"Meaning?"

"Every song must end."

"Yeah." The Doctor turned to Sam. "Um, what about you? Do you still want to go home?"

"No, not just yet."

"Then we'll be off. Dr Ryder, you're welcome to come as well, if you'd like?" he offered, but Ryder shook his head.

He stepped back to stand alongside the Ood. "Thanks, but I'll stay here, with the Ood."

Sam opened the door to the TARDIS, but Sigma interrupted her. "Take this song with you."

"We will."

"Always." confirmed the Doctor.

"And know this, Doctor and Sam, you will never be forgotten. Our children will sing of the Doctor and Sam, and our children's children, and the wind and the ice and the snow will carry your names forever."

Nodding in thanks, Sam and the Doctor entered the TARDIS, dematerialising and leaving Ryder with the Ood, singing.

**AN: **Also, please note I'm still taking suggestions for a better title, and please review.


	3. Human Nature

**Astrophysics in Action**

**Post Doomsday. What if the Doctor had a different companion? Say… Samantha Carter? Crossover with Stargate: SG-1**

**Chapter Two: Human Nature/Family of Blood**

The Doctor dashed to Sam, grabbing her hand and pulling her off the ground, staring directly into her eyes. "Did they see you?"

Sam shook her head. "I don't know, I was a bit preoccupied with the whole running for our lives thing."

"Sam, this is important! Did they see your face?"

Of this, Sam was sure. "No. They couldn't have."

The Doctor growled in frustration with the situation. "They're following us! They can follow us wherever we go. Right across the universe. They're never going to stop...Sam, you trust me don't you?"

Sam considered. "With my life,"

"'Cause it all depends on you."

Sam was floored by the statement, but the Doctor wasn't giving her any time to digest it. "Sam, this watch is me."

Sam took it off him, confused, while he ran around the console. "You're going to have to give me a better explanation than that, Doctor," she told him, a wry grin on her face. She'd been travelling with his for almost a month now, and had seen everything from the Ood to Daleks in Manhattan, but she usually had to prompt him for an explanation before she got one. '

Sure enough, he began to elaborate. "Those creatures are hunters, they can sniff out anyone- and me being a Time Lord; well, I'm unique. They can track me down across the whole of time and space."

"And the good news is?"

"They can smell me, but! They haven't seen me. And their life's bound to be running out- so, we hide, wait for them to die."

"But they can track us down."

He stopped and looked at her, very serious all of a sudden. "That's why I've got to do it. I have to stop being a Time Lord. I'm gonna become human."

"Look out!"

Sam dived to the floor, narrowly dodging a bolt of electricity, which created a fountain of sparks erupting from the console.

The Doctor looked up at the TARDIS ceiling, a strange headset lowering to his reach. "Never thought I'd use this. All the times I've wondered."

"What does it do?"

"Chameleon Arch. Re-write my biology. Literally changes every single cell in my body. I've set it to human."

He grabbed the pocket watch back from Sam, and fitted it into a section of the headset, a small click letting him know it had locked. He turned back to Sam, hugging her briefly. "Now, the TARDIS will take care of everything. Invent a life story for me, find me a setting and integrate me. Can't do the same for you...you'll just have to improvise. I should have just enough residual awareness to let you in. If we're lucky, the TARDIS might give you an opening. Take it."

Sam nodded, trying to take it all in. "But... hold on, if you're going to rewrite every single cell- isn't it going to hurt?"

The Doctor took a steadying breath. "Oh yeah. It hurts."

* * *

Two months. It had been two months since the Doctor had turned himself into a human and they had landed in 1913. Sam reminded herself once again that they only had another month – then she could go back to being appreciated and useful despite the fact that she was a woman. She sighed and kneaded the bridge between her nose, before turning back to her embroidery, trying to feign interest in what the woman next to her was saying. "…and then Ruth told us that she and William are expecting again."

Sam blinked. "Again?" Ruth and William Pearson already had five children between the ages of seven and one.

Elizabeth nodded. "Again. Say, Samantha, why haven't you got a husband yet? You should have at least one child by now. And I think that Frank fancies you, you know."

Sam cringed. Aside from the embroidery, this was another reason that she hated 1913, Little Rock, Arkansas. All the men were incredibly sleazy. They seemed to think that just because she was single, she wanted to marry each and every one of them, and the women weren't helping either. Every week they'd inform her of a new man's affections, expecting her to be delighted and take them up on their offers. Quite frankly, it disgusted her. "Frank smells funny," she hedged without looking at her embroidery partner.

Elizabeth shrugged. "It's not that bad. Besides, he's not poor, and I would think that a woman like you would be jumping at the chance for a match with the likes of him."

"A woman like me?" Sam stared at her, incredulous. "What's wrong with me?"

Elizabeth didn't look at her directly, instead pushing her face up even closer to her embroidery. "I'm just saying, Samantha, that you don't really have very many skills for a wife, do you? Your cooking leaves much to be desired, you can't sew and well, just look at your embroidery."

Sam frowned at her embroidery, affronted. It was meant to be a rose, and while it wasn't perfect, she didn't think it was that bad. You could tell it was meant to be a rose, and considering some of Sam's earlier attempts, it was actually quite good.

Elizabeth continued, unaware that she had offended her friend. "And you're not exactly great with children, are you? Still, that will come better once you're a mother. I was, of course, ready before James and I had our first, but I did have three younger siblings and I was very helpful around the house. You were spoiled, being rich like that. It's too bad that your parents lost all their money before they died. Ted's alright, he's had an education, but you really know nothing."

It was all Sam could do not to throw the loom and needle at Elizabeth, then enlighten her about how much more educated she was than anyone in the whole town. "Ted!" she exclaimed in great relief, seeing the Doctor arrive in the doorway.

"Good morning, sister. Good morning, Mrs Harriman." he greeted politely in an American accent that still didn't seem to suit him, even after two months. "Samantha, I've come to escort you home."

Sam jumped up in relief, hurrying to the door without even questioning the early interruption. Elizabeth, however, had no such qualms. "Why do you need your sister at home, Mr Carter?"

The Doctor put his hands in his pockets. "I need the house clean for tonight, and a dinner cooked, I hope you've improved, sister, as I've invited Irene Gallagher and her son Thomas for dinner."

Sam's face dropped. Now she was expected to entertain guests? When the Doctor was back to his normal self, he'd have some serious explaining to do. This was not what she'd signed up for.

* * *

"And you're not married, Samantha?" Irene asked her directly over a bowl of undercooked potatoes.

Sam shook her head. "No, I'm not. I believe that a woman can make her own way in the world."

Irene frowned. "If one has to, of course," she allowed. "After my Henry died, I had to get a job so that I could care for our son. Being a secretary doesn't pay well, but your brother is very kind to me,"

Sam privately thought that the Doctor had done a little too well out of this deal. He was a bigwig at some bank, earning all the money for both him and Sam to live off, while Sam merely got to sit around and listen to the idle gossip of the wives, which was never something she'd done in the future, as she'd had other preoccupations, but here it was all she could do and Holy Hannah, it was boring!

"Still," Irene continued, "I'm not sure it's right off you to live off your brother's hospitality like this. I've heard that Frank is interested in you."

Sam stared at her, amazed. "I'd rather be a spinster the rest of my life than marry any of the men in this town," she stated boldly.

The Doctor cut in. "Samantha, that's not very nice. Apologise to Irene, then take Thomas and entertain him while Irene and I talk."

Sam was incredibly frustrated, and wanted nothing more than to throw something at the both of them, but living with her father then joining the military had taught her nothing if not self control, and she managed to bite back words that she would regret, woodenly grinding out an apology and taking the six year old by the hand and leading him into the sitting room.

She set him down with a set of dominoes, told him to play quietly and headed back to the kitchen, eavesdropping discretely on the conversation between Irene and the Doctor.

"I keep imagining…" the Doctor was saying quietly to Irene, a shy smile on his face, "oh, this is going to sound silly. I keep I keep imagining that I'm someone else, and that I'm hiding… I dream, quite often, that I have two hearts."

Irene gave a small trill of laughter, and reached out a hand to touch his chest, but seemed to think the better of it. "May I?"

The Doctor nodded, and Irene's hand came to rest gently on his chest, as she felt for his heartbeat. She moved he hand to the other side of his chest and smiled. "See? One heart."

Sam's own heart felt like it was sinking into her stomach with disappointment at that statement, reminding her once again that he had quite literally become someone else for now, and the Doctor laughed at his own silliness.

"I have written down some of these dreams in the form of fiction... um... not that it would be of any interest." He informed her.

Irene was quick to contradict this. "I'd be very interested,"

The Doctor looked at her in amazement, but Irene nodded in confirmation. Standing, the Doctor moved to the side of the room, out of Sam's line of vising, and grabbed something off a shelf.

"Well... I've never shown it to anyone before,"

There was a silence for a moment, before Irene read out what was presumably the title. "'Journal of Impossible Things'"

Sam could hear the pages turning, but she couldn't even see the Doctor or Irene, let alone what he had written. Worry gripped her gut.

"Just look at these creatures!" Irene was exclaiming. "You do have a wild imagination, Ted."

"Mmm. It's become quite a hobby." The Doctor agreed pleasantly.

Sam listened closely for more clues as to what he was saying to her. "It's wonderful. And quite an eye for the pretty girls."

The Doctor was hasty to correct her. "Oh no no, she's just an invention. This character, Rose, I call her, Rose. She seems to disappear later on..." he added thoughtfully, and Sam remembered painfully everything that the Doctor had told her about Rose.

Now he was describing the TARDIS. "Ah, that's the box, the blue box, it's always there. Like a...like a magic carpet, this funny little box that transports me to far away places."

"Like a ship?"

More silence. "I sometimes think how magical life would be if things like this were true."

Irene laughed indulgently. "You are a strange man, you know. Though not nearly as strange as your sister."

Having hear enough, Sam turned back to the room where Thomas was still playing. She didn't notice that the fob watch that had been on the mantle was now in the little boy's pocket.

* * *

Irene and her son had gone home, leaving Sam and the Doctor sitting on the porch of this colonial home that they had somehow claimed ownership to. She wrapped her coat around her tighter, shivering. "Ted, sometimes I just want to scream. Being a woman is so horrible in 1913."

Ted gave her an off look and she belatedly reminded herself that he didn't remember being the Doctor. "Sam, when else would you be a woman?"

Sam shrugged. "Perhaps in the future, things will be different."

Ted looked entirely unsatisfied with her answer, but he didn't press for details.

"Just one more month," Sam repeated under her breath.

"What do you mean?" Ted asked sharply, apparently having heard her despite the fact that she had barely spoken at all.

Sam shrugged, trying to think of a good cover up. "I can't stand this dead end place, Ted. I'm going to leave in a month."

"Why a month? And where would you go?" he sounded quite worried. "Our father tasked me with looking after you, Samantha. I won't let him down."

Sam smiled sadly, and ignored the last statement. "I could go anywhere, Ted," she grinned. She looked at the stars, "Just look up there. Imagine you could go all the way out to the stars."

Ted looked at her sharply. "You read my journal!" he accused. "That's an invasion of my privacy, Sam! It was alright but when we were kids, but we're adults now! And then you have the audacity to make fun of me for it. I've almost had enough of your attitude in these last few months, Samantha," he reprimanded brusquely.

Before Sam could even start to defend herself against his accusations, a bright green flash lit up the night sky, stopping both of them in the paths. "Did you see that?" Sam asked, surprised.

Ted nodded. "It was right up there, just for a second."

A while later, another white flash followed. "It looks like it came down just over there, in the woods," Sam indicated.

Ted shook his head omnisciently. "No, no no, they always look close, when actually they're miles off. Nothing left but a cinder."

Sam was mentally seething. This sort of thing was, after all, her specialty, but she said nothing, instead charging off into the distance. "Sam, come back!" he ordered loudly, but she ignored him. Sighing, he stood up and followed her into the dark.

Finally, Sam reached the place where it looked like the star had fallen, slightly breathless form running. She stopped running when she came to a field. "See," said Ted, smugly. "Nothing there. I told you so, nothing more than a cinder."

He turned away, walking swiftly out of a forest, and Sam reluctantly followed him after giving the field one last look.

* * *

Ted had retired to his bedroom, and Sam waited until she heard his soft snores drifting from his room before she snuck out of her own bedroom, down to the cellar. She opened the door with a key from around her neck, and going toward the back, she was confronted with the sight of the TARDIS. She opened it with another key from around her neck, and stepped inside, shutting the door behind her. The console room was silent, dark. It seemed incredibly lifeless, unlike it had been while they were travelling and Sam was hit with a wave of sadness.

"Hi," she greeted, still feeling awkward about talking to a machine, but aware that it was sentient, which made her feel slightly less insane. She headed to the console, a hand coming to rest gently on the hub of the machine as she breathed out a sigh of terrible frustration and annoyance at her situation.

A few seconds passed, and Sam activated some controls on the console, a screen fizzing to life, showing a recording of the Doctor addressing her via the camera.

"This working?" he tapped the screen in query, and apparently deciding that it was, he leant back. "Sam, before I change here's a list of instructions for when I'm human. One, don't let me hurt anyone. We can't have that, but you know what humans are like. Two, don't worry about the TARDIS, I'll put it on emergency power so they can't detect it, just let it hide away. Four- no, wait a minute, three. No getting involved in big historical events. Four- you. Don't let me abandon you."

A huff of frustration escaped her, and she twisted a dial, effectively fast-forwarding through the Doctor's speech.

Reaching the end of the recording, she released the dial, allowing the last instruction to play as she contemplated her options. "And twenty three. If anything goes wrong, if they find us, Sam, then you know what to do. Open the watch."

She allowed his voice to continue on in the background while she talked it over with herself. "No instructions about meteors… and nothing to help me deal with you being an absolute idiot." She deliberated internally, before uneasily deciding to wait it out and see what happened.

On the screen, the Doctor was winding up his speech. "Oh, and- thank you." With a smile, the recording ended, leaving a blank screen in its place.

"God I wish that you were here, Doctor," Sam whispered to herself.

* * *

Ted had invited Irene and her son over again, and Sam had, predictably, been left with the boy while Ted and Irene retreated to his study.

Sam heard a delighted laugh coming from the room, and cautiously listened at the door. This was becoming quite a habit for her.

Ted's voice was muffled through the heavy wood, and Sam could only just make out what he was saying. "…this page, I should think."

"That's much too beautiful to be me," Irene's voice contradicted him.

"Well that's how I see you."

Irene's reply was sad, filled with longing for something long gone. "I'm a widow with a young son. I'm not meant to be beautiful."

"But you are,"

There was a silence for a few minutes, and Sam thought that it would be safe to enter. What she saw caught her by surprise, even though it probably shouldn't have. Ted and Irene were kissing, but had broken apart blushing at Sam's unannounced entry.

"Oh, Gosh, Ted, I'm sorry," she apologised, blushing with them and hurriedly retreating from the room, closing the door behind her without waiting for them to say anything to her.

All in all, the whole experience had a whole déjà vu feeling to it, reminding her of walking in on Mark and his girlfriend, who had been kissing a lot more explicitly than that, yet somehow, she was more embarrassed today. She shook her head firmly. The repressed morals of this time period were _not _getting to her at all. Not in the slightest.

Once she had recovered, she went back into the lounge where Thomas was sitting on the couch playing with something in his lap. Satisfied that he wasn't up to any mischief, she went to the kitchen, pulling out pots and pan in preparation for dinner.

She didn't notice that what Thomas had been playing with was a fob watch, specifically a fob watch that he had pilfered from that very same room only two days before. Thomas turned his head, an ear tilted toward the watch as he stared blankly at a picture on the wall, voices whispering to him. "The darkness is coming...keep me away from the force and empty man...the last of the Time Lords, the last of a wise and ancient race..."

Thomas didn't understand what this meant, but images flashed across his mind: Elizabeth Harriman, Sam's embroidery buddy, arriving home to meet her husband, James, and their two children Mary and Edward walking stiffly through a field, arriving at the house to stand next to the parents. Suddenly, Thomas had the oddest sensation that they could see him as they simultaneously tilted their heads to look at him, and sniffed deeply.

Thomas dropped the watch as if burned, gasping, his eyes wide open. He took a moment to recover, before he dropped the watch once more in his pocket.

* * *

"Elizabeth's got a cold coming on," Sam informed Ted as he sat at the kitchen table, reading his newspaper. She carefully prepared tea on a tray, bringing it over to him and seating herself. "She was sniffing like mad this morning. I hope she's better for tonight."

"Tonight?" Ted said idly, only half concentrating on what she was saying.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Yes, tonight. Remember? She and James invited us, the Gallaghers and the Pearsons for dinner tonight. I did tell you, but you mustn't have listened properly."

"Hm, well, I've been rather preoccupied lately." He lowered his glasses, putting down his newspaper. "Thom has started to call me Dad lately. I must confess I like the idea.

Shit, Sam swore mentally. "Oh?" she settled for out loud, not allowing him to see any of her inner panic.

"Tell me, Samantha, what do you think of Irene?"

Sam paused, unsure of what to say. This was treading on dangerous territory. She honestly didn't mind Irene, as far as people in this time went, but she didn't think it was a good idea to allow Ted to get too attached to the woman. He'd already gotten attached to her son, but perhaps she could prevented from taking it much further.

"She's a nice person," she answered vaguely, hoping that he wouldn't press for anything more.

"Do you think that mother and father would approve of her as a wife?"

Double shit. "To be honest, I think you should wait until you know her a little better, Ted. You've only known her two and a half months, after all. Give it another couple of weeks, then if you still feel the same, go for it."

He considered for a second, before nodding.

Having finished her tea, she stood up to leave, and he grabbed her sleeve. "Sam," he said, looking her directly in the eye. "Thanks," he pulled her into a brief hug, and she could almost for a second believe that it was actually him, the Doctor, and not Ted Carter.

* * *

They had arrived at the Harriman's house. Ruth and William's children were noisily playing amongst themselves, Mary and Edward were sitting stiffly in their chairs. Ruth, Irene and Elizabeth were in the kitchen, and the only reason Sam wasn't was because they had both agreed that she was an unfit cook. The three men were talking stocks, and Sam was left sitting by herself, quite literally twiddling her thumbs.

"Aunt Sam," cam a quiet voice from her side, and Thomas' small hand tugged on her full skirts. "Aunt Sam, there's something not quite right with the Harrimans."

The stirring in Sam's gut became worse, and she nodded. "I agree, Thom. Will you do a favour for me?"

Thomas nodded quickly, eager to please her. "You watch out for Ted and your Mom, I've got to pop home for a minute," thoughts of the watch rushed across her mind as she looked around worriedly. Any minute now, this whole event could become a disaster.

"Why?"

Sam knelt down to Thomas' level. "I've just got to go get a fob watch, honey," she told him gently. "Then I'll be right back."

Thomas reached into his pocket. "Is this the one?"

Sam was shocked as the boy revealed the doctor's watch. "Give it to me, Thom," she said urgently. "I need it, you see. Ted isn't really my brother, he's a man called the Doctor and he'll be able to fix it,"

The boy handed it over and she slipped it into the pocket of her dress, standing up the reach the Doctor. But it was too late. The Family must have sensed the watch, or heard her, and before she knew what was happening, she was knocked to the floor, a thumping pain in her head.

"Unhand my sister!" she heard Ted cry.

In reply, James kicked her firmly in the head, knocking her completely out cold. "So you took human form." He announced, casually, much to the confusion of everyone in the room. The Pearsons had realised that something not quite right was going on, and untter silence reigned in the room.

"Of course I'm human, I was born human! As were you, and everyone else in this room."

"And a human brain, too! Simple, thick and dull." James confirmed.

Elizabeth's voice was petulant. "He's no good like this."

"We need a Time Lord," Mary agreed.

"Easily done," James said, pulling a gun from his pocket and aimed it at Ted.

The Pearsons, Irene and Thomas gaped. Ted took a great step backwards, confusion written on his face.

"Change back."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

James thrust his gun in Ted's face once again, speaking forcefully. "Change back!"

By this point, Ted was shouting. "I literally do not know…"

"For God's sake!" Elizabeth exclaimed, producing a gun and pointing it at Sam's prone form.

"She's not your sister, but she is your friend. Doesn't that scare you enough to change back?"

Ted had a look of perpetual confusion on his face. "I don't know what you mean!" he insisted, glancing worriedly between his 'sister' and the gun.

"Wait a minute... I remember he was rather fond of the widow."

Mary and Edward simultaneously lunged for Irene, holding her hostage.

James smirked, obviously pleased with the control he had established over the situation. "Have you enjoyed it, Doctor? Being human? Has it taught you wonderful things, are you better, richer, wiser? Then let's see you answer this. Which one of them do you want us to kill? Your sister or your lover? Samantha or Irene?"

"Make your decision, Theodore Carter," Elizabeth prompted.

On the ground, almost forgotten about, Sam was stirring. On the edges of her hearing she just make out the words of the family, becoming more and more clear with every word. She lay quietly on the ground, careful not to bring attention to herself as she considered what her options were.

She didn't have all that long to consider, as Thomas reached into her pocket, looking for the watch. She was still at the best tactical advantage if they didn't know that she was awake, so she reluctantly decided against stopping him, only vaguely aware of the dialogue that was taking place.

She could have yelled in frustration when Thomas opened the watch, a hushed voice breaking the tense silence that had settled over the room. "Time Lord…"

"It's him!" cried James, and Sam decided to seize the opportunity, getting to her feet and ripping the gun from Elizabeth's hand before the other woman realised what had happened.

"I won't hesitate to use this," she warned, cursing her skirts mentally as she realised that a swift evacuation was out of the question. She fired a warning shot just to Elizabeth's right.

"You've got terrible aim," the children mocked as James pointed his gun at her.

"Shoot you down!"

"Try it and we'll both die," Sam retorted.

James sneered in derision. "Would you really pull the trigger? Looks too scared."

"I'm not scared," Sam asserted. "I'm a military woman. I know how to handle a gun,"

If anyone was about to protest the anachronism, they didn't get the chance. James lowered his gun, and Sam quickly wrestled it off him, so that she now had both. Ted, looking completely out of his depth, was joined by Irene.

"Doctor, get everyone out," Sam commanded breathlessly, but Ted stood indecisively regarding her. "Come on, Ted!" she urged, but he was completely useless.

Irene took charge. "Come on, everyone, get out. Thomas, come here quickly! They clearly aren't sane, hurry!"

They all began to hurry away, leaving only Sam and Ted in the room with the family. He looked reluctantly between her and the door, but Sam gave him a sharp look and he scurried out the door.

A quick exchange followed, where the Family advanced on her while she questioned them, learning that the possession had killed the Harrimans, then realised that despite the fact that she still had the weapons, she was at a distinct disadvantage. She turned on her heels and ran.

The Pearson's had gone far away by the time Sam made it out, but Irene, Thomas and Ted were all still waiting for her.

"Holy Hannah, you're a pathetic human!" she exclaimed in frustration, taking his hand and dragging him toward their house. Irene and Thomas followed.

"Are you saying that I'm not real, Samantha?" Ted's voice was injured, and the three just looked at him.

"Tell me, Ted, what did you used to do as a child?" Irene asked, suddenly afraid to hear the answer, accepting the face more easily than he was. "Please tell me, Ted."

But he could not. "How can you think that I'm not real? When I kissed you, was that a lie?"

"No, it wasn't. No," Irene agreed.

Ted continued. "But this Doctor sounds like some...some romantic lost prince. Would you rather that? Am I not enough?"

"No, that's not true. Never," both Sam and Irene protested this point, but Sam continued further. "But right now, we need the Doctor."

Ted shook his head.

"Thom, give me the watch," Sam instructed the boy, and he handed it over. Sam held it out to Ted. "Open it, Doctor, please."

"No!" said Ted. "I won't!"

Sighing, Sam realised that this was getting them nowhere and continued to head toward the house, finally dragging him into the basement where the TARDIS stood, yet somehow the family had reached it before they had.

"Come back, Doctor. Come home. Come and claim your prize." James called tauntingly as the four of them simultaneously took a giant step back from the family. Thomas tripped awkwardly on the step, yelping in pain and massaging his ankle.

"Out you come, Doctor! There's a good boy. Come to the Family," called Edward.

"Time to end it now!" Elizabeth insisted.

Sam whispered urgently in Ted's ear. "You recognise it, don't you? Please, Doctor, just open the watch."

"Come out, Doctor! Come to us!"

Ted's eyes hardened and he declared loudly, "I've never seen it in my life. Samantha, you've gone quite mad."

Sam ignored that comment. "Do you remember its name?"

Ted was silent. Irene looked at him sadly. "I am sorry, Ted, I know how much you'd like for this not to be real, but you wrote about it. The blue box. You dreamt of a blue box. Please open the watch for us,"

"I'm not--I'm Ted Carter. That's all I want to be. Ted Carter, with his life...and his job...and his love… and her son. Why can't I be Theodore Carter? Isn't he a good man?" Ted's voice was breaking.

"He is," Irene swallowed, tears in her eyes.

"Why can't I stay?"

"But we need the Doctor."

"So what am I then, nothing? I'm just a story." Ted ran off, away from the TARDIS and the family. Irene rushed to follow him, and after a small hesitation, Sam collected Thomas in her arms and ran after them.

* * *

"This way!" Irene directed, stopping for breath and pointing in the other direction. Sam let Thomas down for a minute, feeling incredibly exhausted from carrying the boy.

"Doctor, we can't do this," she pleaded, seeing the look on his face. "Thom's injured, I can't carry him for too much longer. We need to follow Irene."

"I'll carry him." Ted said, grabbing the boy in his arms and following Irene.

When they stopped again, all were breathing heavily, but they had reached a darkened and run down little house. "Here we are. It should be empty."

"No one lives here?" Sam asked, curious.

Irene shook her head. "The owner died just before you two arrived here."

Sam sat down, sighing. "Please open the watch."

"Samantha, if this is true, you aren't my sister, but you are this Doctor's companion. Surely there's something you can do? Can't you help?"

A pained expression made its way onto her face. "It's not my area of expertise. And besides, you need to take me back home, I can't just let you stay like this."

"Why not?" Ted protested, annoyed. "Can't you just drive back home in that box?"

Sam laughed sadly. "No, not exactly. The Doctor's the only one who can control it."

"Please just hold it, Dad," Thomas said as Sam held the watch in front of him, whispers of the Doctor's life escaping every now and then.

Ted looked ready to cry. "If I open this, I lose my family!" he said, hugging Thomas to him tightly. "You, my sister. Irene and Thomas, my wife and son – they mightn't be yet, nor by blood, but that's not relevant is it?" he implored Sam.

"I know," Sam agreed. "It's not fair."

There was an explosion outside the window, and Sam placed the watch on the table. "But they're destroying the village, and only the Doctor can stop that."

His hand snaked forward, grasping the watch. He held it for a few seconds, under the watchful gaze of Sam, Irene and Thomas. "I think he's asleep. Waiting to awaken."

"Why did he speak to me?" Thomas asked, suddenly explaining for Sam why he'd taken it in the first place.

The Doctor's response was back in his normal voice, English accent and all. "Oh, low-level telepathic field. You were born with it. Just an extra synaptic engram causing..." He paused mid sentence, lapsing back into his American accent. "Is that how he talks?"

Sam felt exhilarated and bright with hope. "That's him! All you have to do is open it and he's back."

"You knew this all along and yet you watched while Irene and I…"

Sam shrugged. "I didn't know how to stop you! He gave me a list of things to watch out for but that wasn't included."

"Falling in love? Having a family? That didn't even occur to him?"

Sam paused, before answering bluntly. "No."

"Then what sort of man is that? And now you expect me to die?"

There was another flash of light as the explosions outside continued. "I'm sorry, but you were only ever going to get three months."

"So your job was to execute me." Sam didn't answer, and Ted continued talking. "I should have thought of it before--I can give them this. Just the watch. Then they can leave and I can stay as I am!"

"No, Ted." Sam told him sadly. "That would be an inconceivable disaster."

Irene looked up from the journal. "I never read to the end but those creatures would live forever to breed and conquer. War across the stars...for every child."

She turned to Sam. "Samantha, could you take Thomas for a moment."

Sam obliged, leading the six-year-old to another room and hugging him tightly while Ted and Irene talked.

"I'd hoped...but my hopes aren't important," Irene sighed.

"No, go on," Ted asked.

Irene gulped. "I never had a husband. Thom's father was already married, that's why I live here and not at home. I couldn't take the shame. I had hoped that we would marry, that we could take your name… that you'd claim him for your son. It would have made such a difference to his life.'

Ted hugged her. "He is my son. He can still take my name, if you'd like."

Irene shook her head. "You need to do this," she told him.

"He won't love you."

"If he's not you, then I don't want him to."

"It was real. I wasn't...I really thought..."

"What are you going to do?" Irene asked.

The Doctor turned to Irene, breathing heavily, confused. "I don't know. But either way, you can still take my name for Thom's sake."

Irene nodded. He might not have acknowledged a decision yet, but she knew that he'd made one.

* * *

Ted entered the Family's ship. "Just," he lurched clumsily, leaning on the side of the ship and hitting buttons. "Just stop the bombardment. That's all I'm asking. I'll do anything you want, just stop."

"Say please," James taunted.

Ted swallowed the bile rising in his throat at the concept. "Please."

Elizabeth flicked a switch, and the ship hissed in response. She inhaled deeply. "Still human."

"Now I can't--I can't pretend to understand, not for a second, but I want you to know that I'm innocent in all this. He made me Ted Carter. It's not like I had any control over it." as he said this, he fumbled with more buttons.

Mary laughed. "He didn't just make himself human, he made himself an idiot."

"Same thing, isn't it?" asked her brother.

"I don't care about this Doctor and your family, I just want you to go. So, I've made my choice." He held out the watch. "You can have him. Just take it, please! Take him away."

"At last," said James, taking it from his grasp hungrily. As he stared at it, he reached with his other hand to grab the Doctor by the lapels. "But don't think that saved your life."

He pushed the Doctor away, and as he fell, he hit more buttons.

"Family of Mine, now we shall have the lives of a Time Lord."

He opened the watch and the family breathed in deeply. "It's empty!" James exclaimed, turning on the Doctor.

"Well, where's it gone?" The Doctor asked.

James' eyes narrowed. "You tell me." he threw the watch.

The Doctor caught it one handed, and resumed his normal voice "Oh, I think the explanation might be you've been fooled by a simple olfactory misdirection--little bit like ventriloquism of the nose. It's an elementary trick in certain parts of the galaxy. But it has got to be said," he continued as he slipped on his glasses, "I don't like the looks of that hydroconometre. It seems to be indicating you've got energy feedback all the way through the retrostabilisers feeding back into the primary heat converter—ah" he hissed through his teeth. "'Cause if there's one thing you shouldn't have done, you shouldn't have let me press all those buttons. But, in fairness, I will give you one word of advice—Run." With that, he fled the ship.

James was furious, "Get out! Get out!" he yelled at the family, and they evacuated, just before the ship exploded, throwing him to the ground. They looked up to see the Doctor standing over them, and Sam came up to put a hand on his shoulder.

Eventually, she talked him out of torturous punishments, convincing him that it was best to just let them expire, rather than leaving them in a perpetual state of misery.

* * *

The Doctor returned to the house where Irene and Thomas had been staying, wearing his normal clothes.

"Is it done?" said Irene, looking out the window.

He nodded, silently confirming. "Oh, you look the same. Goodness, you must forgive my rudeness. I...find it difficult to look at you. Doctor, must call you Doctor. Where is he? Ted Carter?"

"He's in here somewhere."

Irene laughed softly, but not from the humour of the situation. "Like a story. Could you change back?"

"I could, but I won't." he said, "but his offer still stands, and Sam agrees. You are welcome to use her name, return to your family."

"Well, thank you," Irene smiled. "I'll be sure to do that. Thom does consider Ted his father, you know, and Sam his Aunt."

The Doctor nodded. "He's welcome to. Ted Carter considered him his son. Speaking of which, where is he?"

"He's in the other room. I'm sure he'd like to see you and Samantha before you leave."

So the Doctor went and got Sam, and the two of them said goodbye to the young boy.

"Thanks for your help, Thom," Sam said, smiling at the boy.

Thomas grinned back. "No problem."

The Doctor held out the watch, and Thomas took it in his hands. "This is for you, Thom, from Ted. Look after it."

"I will, Dad," the boy sniffled.

Sam swallowed. "We've got to go now. Bye Thom,"

"Bye Aunt Sam," Thomas said, his arms wrapped around her neck in a tight hug. He moved to the Doctor. "Bye, Doctor,"

Sam kissed him on the cheek.

"Be good for your mother," the Doctor said, hugging the boy one last time before they stepped into the TARDIS and dematerialised.

* * *

"You know, Doctor," Sam said once they were back in the TARDIS. "I think we may have just created a paradox."

"Oh?" he asked, curiously.

Sam nodded. "I got a call from my father. My grandmother's just died, and I'm expected at the funeral. Come along and you'll see what I mean."

The Doctor was confused, but complied, which was how he found himself at Sam's grandmother's funeral.

When the service was over, she introduced him to her grandmother's husband, her grandfather. "This is my grandfather, Thom Carter." she told him. "He's from Little Rock, Arkansas."

"I'm sorry for your loss," the Doctor said.

Thom smiled. "Jenny's in a better place now, I know she's happy, so I'm happy."

The Doctor smiled politely, unsure of what to make of him, and Thom reached out to take his hand. "It's great to see you again, Doctor." He told him, producing a fob watch from his pocket.

The Doctor's eyes lit up in recognition and he laughed. "That's brilliant," he grinned, looking between Sam and Thom. "Absolutely brilliant."

Thom nodded, laughing too. "You can imagine my surprise when I saw my Sammy growing up to become the woman who was my 'aunt'."

Their conversation continued for several more minutes, before Sam and the Doctor took their leave, Thom smiling in their wake.

**AN: **So this one I changed quite a lot, but then when I look back at it, I realise a lot of it was a bit superfluous. Still, I'm pretty please with it anyway. I really needed an in for Sam's family in this story, so I decided to put that in this chapter. I was a bit sad that to do that I had to get rid of Latimer (I really loved him) but I put someone just as adorable in his place (or at least, I think I did). I'm aware that some of these scenes read awkwardly, and that's mainly because I chopped out heaps of stuff and had to find a way to bridge it and still make sense. Let me know if I succeeded. Thanks once again for reading, concrit is always welcomed.


	4. Umen'sur

**Astrophysics in Action**

**Post Doomsday. What if the Doctor had a different companion? Say… Samantha Carter? Crossover with Stargate: SG-1**

**Chapter Three: Umen'sur**

"Sam, can you grab the blue spanner?" called the Doctor from under the console. Sam rummaged in the toolbox for a moment, before producing a tool that was definitely not a spanner, but definitely was blue. She frowned at it for a minute.

"Is this it?" she asked, tossing it to him, and was met with an enthusiastic agreement. "That's nothing like any spanner I've ever encountered," she pointed out, indicating the many flashing lights on the side, which were sure to serve some purpose that Sam was not privy to.

The Doctor laughed, his voice muffled as he answered her. "Have you ever tried fixing a TARDIS with a normal spanner? I didn't think so."

Sam huffed. "I've never tried to fix a TARDIS at all. You won't let me, and it's not like I know anyone else who's got one handy."

The Doctor didn't seem ruffled at all by her sharp tone. "Well, maybe one day I'll let you have a fiddle. With me watching, mind you." He emerged, sitting up straight and tossing the 'spanner' back into the toolbox. "But for now, she's all done. So where shall we go?"

Sam considered for a moment. "Another planet definitely. But other than that, I'm not sure. Put it on random?"

The Doctor nodded his agreement. "Okay, initializing randomization sequence, excluding Earth…" he tugged a lever, and made a motion at Sam, which she immediately understood and pressed a series of buttons.

Once that was done, they both sat back to enjoy the ride.

Sam opened that door and was his with a flood of disappointment. "I thought you were going to exclude Earth from the sequence."

"I did." The Doctor poked his head out, and seeing Victorian England, he shrugged. "Sorry, but come on Sam, it will be fun!" he wheedled.

Sam had half a mind to tell him to tell him where to stick it, but his enthusiasm was infectious and she found herself being pulled onto the streets of Victorian England wearing only her jeans and a leather jacket that the Doctor told her he'd worn in an earlier incarnation. All around her, women were dressed in full skirts, which stretched to their ankles, sometimes even dragging on the floor. The men were wearing either suits or soft cotton pants and shirts, held up by braces and belts. The Doctor didn't look too out of place in his brown pinstripes (though they were a bit too exciting for the time period) but Sam felt immensely out of place. Usually when the Doctor took her to another time period, he allowed her to dress from the wardrobe in appropriate clothing, but today they had been surprised by it so here she was.

"Doctor," she said nervously, looking around.

He stopped dead in his tracks and spun to look at her. "Hmm?"

She waved a hand in front of her. "Don't you think I might stand out a bit?"

The Doctor frowned for a second, before realizing what she meant. "Nah," he dismissed. "Just walk around like you own the place, and no one will even think twice."

Sam briefly contemplated the wisdom in this: after all, he always wore the same clothes. "Okay," she agreed. With that out of the way, the two continued to walk down the street, the Doctor giving a running commentary about the society.

"Um, Doctor," Sam said warily.

He turned to look at her. "Yeah?"

"I think something might be wrong," she told him, looking around at the people, who were retreating back into their dwellings as if afraid of something. The down had a distinct lack of life as they walked past. The Doctor paused a moment to think.

"You know what Sam, I think you might be right." At this, he grinned widely at her. "How do you feel about another adventure?"

Sam grinned. "I'll take one of your adventures over a trip to another planet any day.

The Doctor grinned back. "Not to mention that most of them are on another planet. Right, first things first, precisely where and when are we?"

Sam shrugged at him. "You're the one who drives the TARDIS. Isn't she supposed to tell you?"

The Doctor gave a nod of acknowledgement to this fact. "True, but I didn't check before I left, I figured Victorian England was enough information for us to have some fun. Now we need more precise information, but it will be quicker to ask one of the locals than to go back to the TARDIS.

"That's true," Sam granted. The TARDIS was at least half an hour in the other direction. "Or at least it would be if they weren't all acting like we're about to kill them and hiding from us."

"Well, yeah," the Doctor agreed. "That is a bit of a problem. Still, it can't hurt to try." He walked purposely toward a middle-aged woman who was attempting invisibility against an alley wall. "Hi!" he greeted enthusiastically, and Sam sighed, reluctantly following him.

"I'm the Doctor, and this is Sam Carter. We're from far far away and we were wondering if you could tell us precisely where we are,"

"And the date," Sam included, and the woman shrank even more against the wall, if that were even possible.

Sam and the Doctor looked at each other in query, before Sam once more addressed the woman. "Can you tell us what you're so afraid of?"

The woman looked at them both in wide-eyed terror, but did not say anything.

"Whatever it is, we'll fix it," the Doctor out in brightly. "That's us! Saviours of the universe, fearless conquerors of evil-overlords," he continued, and Sam suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at his antics. The woman had stiffened even more at his words, and Sam attempted to calm her.

"We will fix it, I promise." She consoled, and finally the woman's silence broke.

Unfortunately, it wasn't to tell them what was wrong, but to let a cry of terror rip itself from her throat, a single word that neither Sam nor the Doctor had ever heard before. "Umen'sur!"

At this exclamation, Sam and the Doctor exchanged a glance of confusion, and spent several seconds staring in mystification at the terrified girl. Someone tentatively tapped Sam's shoulder, and she turned around. Behind her, with a gun trembling in his hand at his side, was a man dressed in a uniform of some sort, presumably of the police or a guard of some type. There was another man behind the Doctor, and this one was holding two pairs of handcuffs. The both of them looked frightened out of their wits, not unlike the woman they'd been attempting to question.

"Excuse me Sir, Ma'am," began the one with the gun, terror obvious in his tone. "We have to arrest you. Could you please come quietly, Sir, Ma'am?"

Sam and the Doctor exchanged bewildered looks. "What are we being arrested for?"

The man looked to the right and chewed on his lip. "Could you please just come?"

The Doctor 'humm'ed briefly, turning to Sam. "Of all the times we've been arrested, these people have been the nicest about it. What do you say, Sam?"

Sam blinked at him in amazement, and spoke to him in a lowered tone. "Why, exactly, do you think it's a good idea for us to be arrested?"

The Doctor shrugged. "It could be fun."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Most times when we're arrested, we're almost executed," she reminded him.

The Doctor sucked a breath in through his teeth, "True," he agreed. "But these people couldn't harm a fly, they're too scared. Look! They're actually asking us if we'll let them arrest us! We could walk away now and never hear from them again," he wheedled.

"Let's do that then," Sam said quickly.

"…they wouldn't even try to stop us. So, I think we'll be fine. They, however, clearly are not fine. Something has the whole place terrified, and that's not normal. Something that might be Umen'sur, if I'm not wrong. Now I've heard of most things, Sam, but I haven't heard of the Umen'sur, ever. And I'm a curious man, I want to find out what they are and why they're so scary. Also, why would they think that we're the Umen'sur?"

Sam had silently agreed to come half way through his speech, but had allowed him to continue anyway, an amused smile playing on her lips. In truth, she was worried about the unusual atmosphere in the town as well. "Alright then," she smiled.

The Doctor wore a smug expression of victory on his face as he turned to the guards. "Right then! Take us away!"

Reluctantly, the second guard stepped forward and cuffed them, and with the assista nce of the other, led them both away.

* * *

They were in what seemed to be an interrogation cell, considering it only had two chairs and a table inside. It was a surprisingly modern cell, which had the Doctor wondering whether there had been alien influence in the town (the presence of the Umen'sur certainly seemed to indicate that there was) but Sam was convinced that they had, in fact, landed on another planet. She had already taken apart the box that housed the security system, and was examining it thoroughly with the assistance of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. "Doctor, this circuitry is like nothing I've ever seen on Earth. And look," she pointed out a small metallic looking structure inside it. "I'm not sure what this is for, but this metal – it's either an alloy that we haven't discovered yet, or a completely different element, look at it," she shoved the wires in his face and he clicked his tongue, putting on his glasses.

"Ooh, Naquadah," he intoned, much to Sam's frustration and confusion.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Definitely not Victorian England?" the Doctor said, looking at her over the top of his glasses, and she nodded. "Must be a planet occupied by people who want to live in that kind of a society, there are always a few people who believe that the old way was the better way. After all, there's a planet of Ninjas, why shouldn't there be a planet of the almost-amish?"

Sam looked at him in shock. "Planet of Ninjas?"

"Hey, don't ask me," the Doctor defended "It's _your_ species."

Sam shook her head, realizing that now was not exactly the time for this discussion. "So what's Naquadah?"

"Dangerous," the Doctor answered promptly. "The only reason I can think of for it to be here, like this… well, frankly Sam, I'd be surprised if it wasn't a bomb."

Sam bit her lip. "I thought you said that these people weren't going to try and kill us."

The Doctor nodded. "Well, yes. But that was before I knew that they had a Naquadah bomb in their security system. They'll likely destroy themselves as well as us."

"Well that's comforting," Sam noted dryly. "So… time to plan an escape?"

The Doctor agreed quickly. "We won't be able to work out what's going on here if we're dead." He took his sonic screwdriver back from Sam and began to work on the concrete door. "Still," he mused as a small click indicated that he had it open. "At least we know that it wasn't your clothes that made them arrest us. It's clearly got something to do with these Umen'sur and Naquadah."

Sam reluctantly agreed with him on that point, and they exited the cell. It was surprisingly easy to sneak out of the facility in which they were being held. It was a sall building, housing maybe five other cells, and then there was nothing. The only security seemed to be in they systems laced with the Naquadah bomb, there weren't any guards or anything. Looking around, they could see that they were in the middle of a padock. The Doctor tugged Sam back inside the block of cells, much to her confusion.

"We just escaped! Why are we going back inside?"

The Doctor looked at her like she was stupid for a few seconds before he explained. "There are other people in those cells, Sam, and it looks like they're going to blow this place up. Also, they might know something about the Umen'sur."

So they found themselves opening the doors to one of the other cells in sneaking inside. The occupant was sitting on the chair in the middle of the room, staring vacantly at the wall. He didn't even look at them when they entered. The Doctor approached him slowly.

"Hello," he greeted softly.

The man did not reply.

"I'm the Doctor, this is Sam. Who are you?"

His face was emotionless as he answered. "Keller."

The Doctor and Sam exchanged looks of delight. Finally someone was willing to speak to them! "Listen," said the Doctor urgently. "Do you know what's going on here? What's happened to you?"

"I have been taken," Keller said in vague tones, resuming staring at the wall.

"Ah… yes. By whom, exactly?" the Doctor prodded.

"I have been taken," Keller repeated as though he expected them to know exactly what he meant. "I have been taken and now I will be terminated." His voice lacked any indicators of emotion at that statement."

Interesting. So apparently the man knew about the bombs – or at least, the effect that they would have.

"Aren't you scared?" Sam asked incredulously, gawping at him.

"No," the man asserted as if this was something he had not considered. "I have been taken, thus I cannot feel scared."

At this phrase, the Doctor paled slightly. The lack of emotions was eerily familiar-, reminiscent of both the Daleks and the Cybermen. "What do you mean, you have been taken?" he urged, but did not receive a straight answer.

"I must be terminated." Keller responded blankly.

The Doctor sighed in frustration. "Come on, Keller, give me a hand here. What do you mean you have been taken? Why are we here?"

Keller blinked. "We are here because we have been taken. We have no fear and must be terminated." The man's eyes lifted to a clock on the wall. "Termination in fifty seconds."

"Oh crap,"

At this announcement, Sam and the Doctor began to run away from the complex as fast as they possibly could. Spurred by adrenaline, they managed to make it just far enough away that they could feel the heat from the blast scorching their backs, but they remained relatively unharmed as they dropped to the ground.

"There goes our only willing source of information," mourned the Doctor.

Sam glared at him. "He wasn't exactly willing, and he was cryptic as all hell. Surely there's someone in this town that will speak to us in straight terms!" she was frustrated with the entire situation, and didn't even bother trying to hide it.

The Doctor frowned. "Well, he was the best we could get."

Sam paused for a second. "Maybe not."

The Doctor looked at her suspiciously. "Sam?"

"These people are terrified of us. If we just demand that they tell us everything we want to know, they're bound to tell us. We just have to stop being so gentle with them."

The Doctor took a long moment to consider it. "I don't like it," he began grudgingly. "But it's the best chance we've got at helping these people, so okay. Just this once, mind."

* * *

They were the same guards that had timidly asked them to agree to be arrested. Putting on a stony face that wasn't entirely false, she marched up to the two, the Doctor on her tail. "We agreed to be arrested, not to be executed!" she exclaimed to the trembling guards.

"Yeah!" the Doctor agreed mildly from behind her, not quite sure what to make of angry-Sam.

"Y-you had to be termin-terminated," he stuttered fearfully, a thin sheen of sweat gathering on his forehead as his hand clenched and unclenched around the gun at his side.

Sam let out a loud sigh of frustration, and whipped the weapon from his hands, pointing it steadily at him. "Come with us and answer some questions or you get a shiny bullet through your head," she informed him bluntly.

Behind her the Doctor was looking angry. "That wasn't part of the plan, Sam!" he told her, frustration clear in his tone.

Sam shrugged, and turned to look him in the eyes. "It is now," she said, then lowered her voice so that the guard couldn't hear her. "And don't give him a reason to call my bluff, Doctor,"

The Doctor obviously wasn't pleased about this turn of events, but Sam tried not to think about it too much as she led the man back to an empty shop.

"What's your name?" she demanded.

The man looked confused by the question, and answered slowly. "Guard Hadlan. Yours?" the question was tacked onto the end like he wasn't sure if he should be asking or not.

Sam smiled at him, but quickly remembered that she was supposed to be playing 'bad cop' and dropped it, answering tersely. "Sam Carter."

"I'm the Doctor," said the Doctor from beside her.

Hadlan seemed to have relaxed a bit, as his face screwed up at this. "Doctor who?"

The Doctor sighed, looking up to the ceiling. "Why can't anyone ever take just the Doctor for an answer?" he asked rhetorically, before looking back at Hadlan. "Doctor Ted Carter," he said.

Sam glared at him. "We're not making buddy with the prisoner, _Ted,_" she growled. "Hadlan, I want you to tell me exactly why we were arrested earlier."

There was a moment of silence, and Sam banged her fist on the table. "Now, Hadlan!"

The Doctor held back a snigger. Someone had definitely been watching too much TV.

"You're Umen'sur," he answered quickly, stepping back as though Sam might hit him.

"What are Umen'sur?" the Doctor cut in quickly.

Hadlan looked at them both, bewildered. "Surely you know!" he forgot to be afraid, but Sam and the Doctor shook their heads.

"You cannot feel fear," he told them in a whisper, a small thread of horror intermingling with his low tones. "Your body has become host to the Umen'sur. Now it's just fear that to can't feel, but soon it will be worse. It goes for the strongest emotions first: fear, love, happiness, disappointment. But then it attacks the rest of your brain, getting rid of all your last shreds of humanity before leaving you an empty husk! You stay like that for a few days, peripherally aware of your surroundings and very occasionally being able to speak, but then your body drops dead and the Umen'sur looks for a new host."

The guard had told them the story like it was a ghost story, like an attempt to frighten them. It did, in fact, give Sam a light chill down her spine and she shuddered. The Doctor also looked a little strained in the face. "And these Umen'sur… what do they look like?"

The guard shrugged. "You'd have more chance of knowing than I. You two, are, after all, Umen'sur. Now that you know the danger you pose to all the others, will you please return to the cells?" and just like that, the fearful, trembling man they'd first met made a reappearance.

The Doctor groaned. "Hadlan, come with us," he demanded. "I'm going to prove to you that we're not Umen'sur, and then you're going to help us work out a way of getting rid of the Umen'sur."

The Doctor stood abruptly, walking out the door. Hadlan followed a few meters behind, and Sam shook herself out of the reverie before jogging to catch up to the Doctor. "Doctor, the Umen'sur must be some sort of contagious disease that attacks the emotional centre of the brain," she offered her theory, and the Doctor nodded.

"And these people have no other way of identifying the victims in their early stages except by their lack of fear. So in turn, everyone in the town gets even more scared, and they all show it, just to be sure that they're still safe," he continued to build on her theory.

"And then if they realize that they are unwell, they agree to being terminated because they don't want to pass the disease to their friends and family," Sam finished.

"Exactly." The Doctor agreed. "And going up to a random person on the street and claiming you can defeat the great evil doesn't exactly seem like the kind of this someone scared out of their wits would do, so they assumed we were Umen'sur."

"And when we agreed to be arrested, they assumed we realized that it meant 'terminated'," Sam groaned, and the Doctor nodded.

"Right, so clearly we're here so that we can fix this little problem that they have with the Umen'sur. But how exactly do you propose we do that?"

Sam shrugged. "My doctorate's in theoretical astrophysics. I'm not much use with infectious diseases, I'm afraid."

The Doctor looked contemplative. "I'm not exactly an expert, either," he frowned. "But I can bet your bottom dollar that we need to first find out as much as we can about the disease and for that,"

"We need to find a victim," Sam concluded.

By this point, they were almost at the TARDIS, and the guard was still trailing behind them. "Hadlan," called the Doctor suddenly, stopping in his tracks to turn around.

Hadlan blinked. "Yes, Doctor Ted?" he asked warily.

"Where do you keep all the Umen'sur?"

* * *

They were at another set of prison cells, not unlike the ones that they had been trapped in before. "These ones should go in twelve hours," Hadlan explained.

Only acknowledging Hadlan's words with a nod, the Doctor worked on the door to one of the cells with his sonic screwdriver while Sam watched silently with pursed lips and Hadlan nervously ripped at the skin around his fingernails. The door clicked open to reveal a blonde girl sitting on the chair, drumming her fingers against her knees.

"Hello!" exclaimed the Doctor. "I'm Doctor Ted Carter, this is my sister Sam, and this good man here is Hadlan. We need your help."

"My help?" snorted the girl. "I'm Umen'sur, how could I help anyone now? Unless you're into assisted suicide, I'm good for that," despite her infection with the Umen'sur, it appeared that she still had the typical teenaged snark.

"This one's now very far gone, yet," Hadlan informed them quietly.

"I'm Sam,"

"Abidel," the girl introduced. "So what's the deal?"

"Don't you worry about details," grinned the Doctor. "Come on, we're breaking you out."

The girl didn't look particular enthused by the thought, but she didn't seem against it. "Whatever," she said, standing up and allowing herself to be led to the TARDIS, where the Doctor took her straight to the infirmary.

He began the run the sonic screwdriver over her like a wand, making a noise of excited realization when it came over her head.

"I've got good news and bad news," he announced once the tests were finished. Sam, Hadlan and Abidel looked at him expectantly. "Good news: it's not a disease, it's a parasite, and I can stop it's propgation."

"That's great!" exclaimed Hadlan with a look of awe and joy on his face.

"Yes, but the thing is, and I'm really sorry…" Sam's stomach sunk. She knew what the next words were going to be. "It's going to be very painful, and you might not survive." He finished, looking straight at Abidel, whose face had brightened at the good news and paled incredibly when she heard the bad news.

Sam wrapped the teenager in her arms and let her cry for a few minutes. Abidel took a deep breath, pulling away from Sam and looked up at the Doctor. "I'll do it," she announced.

"Thank you," said the Doctor sincerely. "Okay, Abidel. What I need you to take these," he handed her two tablets, "and then you have to let go."

Abidel wordlessly took the tablets, swallowing them in one gulp and lying down on the cot. Her eyes closed and the other three watched intently as her breath slowed, her chest stilling. A few more seconds passed and she gasped loudly, her eyes flicking open, her mouth wide in a painful scream. "Abidel, let go," urged the Doctor. "You have to let go!"

It seemed she got the message as her scream died and the Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver. "Umen'sur, you have taken this body. I demand to know why and that you release it."

"I will not release it." A gravelly voice erupted from Abidel's throat. "It is my right."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, it's not. It's her body, she should be allowed to live there."

"It is fault of her people that we do not live in our original homes," the Umen'sur said.

"Hadlan?" the Doctor said, but the guard could only shrug.

Sam grabbed Abidel's wrist. "What do you mean? Where was your original home?"

"For many centuries, we were undisturbed. We happily fed from the natural minerals in the soil."

A look of realization crossed Hadlan's face. "The mines," he breathed. "The first Umen'sur were all workers in the mines."

"You lived in the mines?" the Doctor asked. "Then they dug up your home?"

"Yes," the Umen'sur revealed. "They destroyed our home and turned it into a weapon. The council decided to evoke an appropriate punishment. Their bodies are their homes, and it was our right to make them destroy them with the weapons that they made from our home."

They all listened to this explanation with patience until its conclusion. "So, basically it's a twisted form of revenge?" Sam concluded, but the Umen'sur denied this.

"No. It's not twisted. We are doing to the what they did to us."

"And… these no chance you're just, well, fed up with it? Tired of being killed for the cause?" hinted the Doctor.

The Umen'sur's eyes hardened. "Their destruction of our homes continue. Our destruction of theirs will continue also."

"Hadlan, what will it take to stop the mining of the Naquadah?" Sam jumped in quickly.

Hadlan shrugged. "Not my area of expertise, but it might be a bit difficult to convince them that in order to destroy the enemy they should stop trying."

The Doctor frowned. "Yes, well, that could be a bit of a problem."

Sam turned to the Umen'sur. "Do you have a name?"

The Umen'sur nodded Abidel's head. "I am High Councillor Trennis."

"High Councillor Trennis," she began formally. "I request your patience in dealing with the people of this planet. They were unaware of the harm they were causing to your people. Furthermore, I offer you a proposal."

The High Councillor was silent for a moment before he conceded. "Continue,"

"It is true that you do not require a host to continue your survival, correct?" she continued, and the High Councillor gave a curt nod in response.

"In exchange for you immediate evacuation of all hosts, with their minds intact, all the mined Naquadah will be turned over to you and any further requests for mining will come before the High Council. Current mining will end. You will also immediately concede the body of Abidel, your host, and cease taking new hosts." Sam had apparently learnt something from the many times she'd been watching the Doctor negotiate with aliens, and the Doctor was looking on proudly while the Umen'sur seriously considered.

"You have twenty four hours to make good on your side of the deal. Then, and only then, we will release the hosts and cease taking new ones. Until this time, I will remain in the body of Abidel, however I will allow her full consciousness. Is this acceptable."

Sam grinned. "Deal."

They shook on it and with a gasp, Abidel returned to them, crying. Sam hugged her for a few minutes, until she stopped crying, then turned to the others. "Come on, we don't have long to convince everyone else of what to do," she said.

"Right!" exclaimed the Doctor. "We don't have long, come on, off to the town hall," he ushered Hadlan and Abidel out of the TARDIS, but held Sam back.

"I'm proud of you, Sam," he told her seriously.

Sam shrugged. "I learnt it all from you, _Ted_," she said pointedly and he smiled.

"Come on _sis_, let's go talk some sense into the populace!"

* * *

In the end, the villagers were fairly easily convinced to acquiesce their Naquadah supplies and their mines, assured that everyone they hadn't blown up would be returned to them unharmed. Several of the older men were pushing to go in and blow up the mines, but the Doctor was able to convince them that this would be a very bad idea, so the idea was vetoed by the rest of the town. Within the set twenty four hours, the mining had been abandoned and the rest of the terms of the terms fulfilled.

"Bye Sam," Abidel said, hugging her tightly as they stood congregated around the TARDIS.

Sam hugged her back. "I'll miss you," she told the teenager, who sniffled into her shoulder. "Come on, Abi, it'll be alright."

Abidel drew herself up tall. "Will you come visit?"

Sam looked at the Doctor to field that one. "Probably not, Abidel. I'm sorry, but we don't usually come back."

"Oh," she said sadly.

Hadlan clapped a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Don't worry, Abidel. It'll be alright."

Abidel nodded. "Yeah. It's just, well, you guys saved my life. I feel like I owe you something."

Sam gently clasped the girl's shoulders. "You owe us nothing, Abi."

"Yeah," put in the Doctor. "All in a day's work!"

Hadlan laughed at that. "I think that we do owe you rather a lot, Doctor Ted, Sam. But if you refuse everything else, you can at least have our thanks."

Sam and the Doctor nodded, hugged Abi goodbye one last time and shook Hadlan's hand, steeping back into the TARDIS.

**A/N: **I'm not all that happy with the conclusion, but this was the original adventure that some people asked for, or at least my attempt at it. Tell me what you think. I tried to incorporate ideas from both shows, and not to make it too ridiculous. I had precisely two ideas for this: the Umen'sur or the planet of Ninjas. You got this. Be glad. I know it's a lot shorter than normal, too, but I figure if I dragged it on for too long it would have been terrible, not to mention you'd have had to wait forever for an update. Anyway, as always concrit is appreciated.


	5. Midnight

**Astrophysics in Action**

**Post Doomsday. What if the Doctor had a different companion? Say… Samantha Carter? Crossover with Stargate: SG-1**

**Chapter Four: Midnight**

"I didn't come halfway across the galaxy and a few hundred years into the future so that I could spend my days at a spa, _sunbathing_," Sam insisted, frowning at the Doctor. "And as far as research goes, this place is pretty much a dead end because if we want to actually collect any samples, then we die."

The Doctor rolled his eyes at her. "Come on, Sam. Live a little. Come with me on this tour, and then we'll go somewhere else. It might be nice to do something relaxing for a change."

Sam was unconvinced. "Getting tired in your old age?" she quipped lightly.

The Doctor rolled his eyes at her comment. "Come on. Sapphire waterfall - it's a waterfall made of sapphires! This enormous jewel, size of a glacier, reaches the Cliffs of Oblivion, and then shatters into sapphires at the edge - they fall 100,000 feet into a crystal ravine."

"I still vote for going somewhere else now,"

The Doctor shrugged. "Too bad you're not the pilot. Now hurry up, they're boarding now! It's no fun if I see it on my own. Four hours, that's all it takes. Well, four hours there and four hours back. Then we can go somewhere else, and then I'll come visit the rest of your family with you like you've been begging. Please, Sam?"

Sam sighed in exasperation. He was doing his puppy dog impression, which inevitably made her agree with him. "Alright, fine. I'll come. But if you don't fulfil your side, things might get ugly. And as for not being the pilot, I am getting better with the TARDIS you know. And I do have a pilot's licence, unlike you."

"Ooh, low blow," joked the Doctor, slinging his arm around her should as he lead her toward the departures area.

Sam grinned, and added, "but I'd still like to go to the anti-gravity restaurant."

"Great!" responded the Doctor, an insanely pleased grin stretching from one end of his face to another.

Sam and the Doctor were seated on the shuttle, watching as the last of the passengers boarded. Already on board were a couple, Val and Biff, and their teenage son Jethro. The Hostess was welcoming a woman named Sky, who sat down a few seats behind them. The last people to board were an older looking man and a younger woman who seemed to be his assistant.

As the door closed, the hostess came around with various accessories. "That's the headphones for Channels 1 to 36; modem link for 3D vidgames; complimentary earplugs; complimentary slippers; complimentary juice pack; and complimentary peanuts. I must warn you some products may contain nuts," she told the Doctor and Sam, passing various articles into their hands.

The Doctor grinned at the last comment, "That'll be the peanuts," he sidelined brightly to Sam, who rolled her eyes at the humour.

"Enjoy your trip."

"We will," Sam said, kicking the Doctor's foot with her own to keep him from saying anything.

She moved onto the older man and the assistant, "Headphones for channels 1-36..."

She was cut off abruptly. "Oh no, thank you, not for us!" said the man followed almost immediately by the girl's request for earplugs.

When the Hostess had turned to the next person, Sky, the man started talking animatedly to his assistant. "They call it a sapphire waterfall, but it's no such thing, sapphire's an aluminium oxide, but the glacier is just a compound silica with iron pigmentation!"

Sam, overhearing the conversation looked at the Doctor. "Can I?" she asked.

The Doctor considered for a moment. "Alright but no questions about your future! Just science."

Sam nodded eagerly and went over to interrupt the conversation. "Hi, sorry to interrupt, but I'd love a chance to talk some science."

The man smiled at her, gesturing to a seat beside the girl. "I'm Professor Winfold Hobbes, this is my assistant Dee Dee Blasco."

"Sam Carter," she introduced, holding out to shake their hands.

"Ooh, after the Astrophysicist, right?" Dee Dee asked eagerly, causing Sam to wonder what she would do in the future to be instantly recognised so immediately, assuming that the were actually talking about her.

"Uh, yes," she answered hesitantly, searching hr brain desperately for something to change the topic. "So you were saying you've done this before?"

"Oh, yes," he exclaimed amiably. "It's my fourteenth time."

Sam's eyebrows shot into her hairline in surprise. "Fourteenth? It's my first! Why have you been so many times?"

"All in the pursuit of answers, my dear Sam. Answers to the mysteries of science."

Sam nodded, agreeing with his point. "But merely through observation? How do you stand it, not being able to touch or perform experiments?"

"I stand it well enough," Professor Hobbes began, and Sam listened to him intently as he described all the things he had done learnt through observation alone.

While Sam was chatting science, the Doctor was people watching. Jethro, the teenager, was sitting away from his parents, a resolutely sullen look on his face as the Hostess handed him all his complimentary items. He accepted them wordlessly, ignoring his parents' calls for him to join them.

**"**Don't be silly, Jethro, come and sit with us. Look! We get slippers!"

"Jethro! Do what your mother says."

The boy rolled his eyes, arms crossed firmly over his chest. "I'm sitting here."

**"**Oh, he's ashamed of us. But he doesn't mind us paying, does he?" Biff, Jethro's father, spoke loudly enough for his son to hear, an obvious reprimand.

**Val **put a hand on her husband's arm, calming him. "Oh, don't you two start. Should I save the juice pack or have it now? Look, peach and clementine!"

_At this point, the hostess moved to the front of the shuttle, ready to address all the passengers, who quieted as she spoke. "_Ladies, gentlemen and variations thereupon, welcome on board the Crusader 50, if you would fasten your seatbelts, we'll be leaving any moment. Doors!" At her call, the doors sealed automatically.

"Shields down," she said, and immediately shields began to descend on all the windows. "I'm afraid the view is shielded until we reach the Waterfall Palace. Also, a reminder, Midnight has no air, so please don't touch the exterior door seals. Fire exit at the rear, and should we need to use it... you first." At this announcement, she laughed as though she thought the need for the fire exit absurd.

Smiling pleasantly once more, she handed them over to the driver, who informed them that they would be taking a slight detour. "The journey covers 500 kliks to the Multifaceted Coast, duration is estimated at four hours." He thanked them for their patronage, while Sam wondered momentarily about the extension of military slang into general use, but was interrupted by a cacophony of entertainment devices, all trying to run at once, and didn't think about it much further.

Her forehead creased in distress, and it seemed to her that no one else was enjoying it either, except for maybe Val and Biff. From the corner of her eye, she saw the Doctor discreetly pointing his sonic screwdriver at the system, before they all suddenly blanked.

"Well, that's a mercy!" said Professor Hobbes gratefully, while at Sam's side Dee Dee merely smiled with relief.

**The Hostess apologised for the 'failure' of the Entertainment System, and Val and Biff seemed bewildered. "But what do we do?" Val exclaimed, at the same time as Biff expressed his own incredulity. "**We've got four hours of this! Four hours of just... sitting here?"

The Doctor smiled across the room and winked at Sam. "**T**ell you what! We'll have to talk to each other instead!"

Sam smiled back, and once she was sure that the Doctor wasn't lonely (he started talking to Val and Biff, much to their confusion) she continued her conversation about xtonic radiation with Dee Dee and the Professor.

**98 KLIKS LATER...**

_The Doctor was still talking the Val and Biff, who were by now happily telling him a story about an abstract pool that they had tried to swim in. Sam, having exhausted all the 'safe topics', or at least all the topics that she could be sure wouldn't reveal too much of her personal future, was looking around for an escape that wouldn't entirely insult her new friends. Sky and Jethro were still sitting alone, but neither looked interested in interruptions, so Sam smiled tightly and turned the conversation to more personal topics. "So where did you grow up, Dee Dee?"_

**150 KLIKS LATER...**

_The Doctor and Sam had swapped places. Now she was talking to Val and Biff, while Dee Dee told him about why she was here. _

"I'm just a second-year student, but I wrote a paper on the Lost Moon of Poosh, Professor Hobbes read it, liked it, took me on as a researcher. Just for the holidays. Well, I say researcher, most of the time he's got me fetching and carrying. But it's all good experience!" she said earnestly, beaming from her excitement.

"And did they ever find it?"

"Find what?" Dee Dee asked, confused by the question.

**"**The Lost Moon of Poosh!"

"Oh no! Not yet!" Dee Dee laughed.

The Doctor lifted his coffee cup, saying, "Well, maybe that'll be your great discovery, one day. Here's to Poosh!"

_"_Poosh!" Dee Dee agreed, lifting hers to hit his.

**209 KLIKS LATER**

_The Doctor and Sam were sitting next to Sky, chatting to her while they ate their meals, which had only just been served._

_"So are you here with anyone?" Sam asked casually in an attempt to make conversation._

_"_No, it's just me," Sky replied sadly.

The Doctor grinned at her. "Oh, I've done plenty of that. Travelling on my own. I love it. Do what you want! Go anywhere! Not that I don't like having you with me, Sam," he told her, grinning stupidly.

She rolled her eyes, but turned to Sky as she continued her explanation. "No, I'm still getting used to it. I've... found myself single rather recently, not by choice."

"What happened?"

Sky looked away briefly, before apparently deciding that she'd answer the question. "Oh, the usual. She needed her own space, as they say. A different galaxy, in fact. I reckon that's enough space, don't you?"

Sam's eyes widened in wonder, contemplating intergalactic travel for a moment before the Doctor spoke. "Yeah... I had a friend who went to a different universe."

An awkward silence hung in the air while Sky and the Doctor wallowed in self-pity. Sam swallowed her momentary sadness for the situation, and looked at her meat. "So, what's the verdict? Chicken or beef?"

Sky and the Doctor examined it briefly. "Both."

**251 KLIKS LATER...**

_Professor Hobbes had pulled out his slides and was now showing the other passengers what he'd been explaining to Sam before._

**"**So, this is Midnight, d'you see? Bombarded by the sun! Xtonic rays, raw galvanic radiation. Dee Dee, next slide! It's my pet project. Actually, I'm the first person to research this. Because you see... the history is fascinating, because there is no history. There's no life in this entire system, there couldn't be. Before the Leisure Palace Company moved in, no one had come here in all eternity. No living thing."

Jethro, arms still crossed over his chest, spoke up from the back row. "But how d'you know? I mean, if no-one can go outside..."

Sam personally thought it was a very good question, and waited eagerly for the answer, but Val was quick to dismiss him like a small child. "Oh, his imagination! Here we go!"

"He's got a point, though," the Doctor told her.

"Exactly! We look upon this world through glass. Safe inside our metal box. Even the Leisure Palace was lowered down from orbit. And here we are now, crossing Midnight, but never touching it."

The rest of his speech was interrupted, as a rattling noise filled the carriage and the engines abruptly fell silent.

Predictably, Val and Biff were the first to react. "We've stopped. Have we stopped?"

"Are we there?"

Dee Dee shook her head. "No, we can't be. It's too soon."

Hobbes was quick to add his two cents worth as well. "They don't stop, Crusader vehicles never stop."

At the point, the hostess stepped into the conversation, apparently as confused as confused as the other passengers. "If you could just... return to your seats, it's... just a small delay." Her voice rung with an intentionally dampened befuddlement, and she stepped over to the intercom to talk to the driver.

"Maybe it's just a pit stop," Biff suggested as the hostess asked the driver what was going on.

Professor Hobbes was quick to disabuse the passengers of that notion. "There's no pit to stop in, I've been on this expedition 14 times, they never stop."

Sky raised an eyebrow at him. "Well evidently, we have stopped, so there's no point in denying it."

Jethro seemed amused by the whole ordeal. "We've broken down! In the middle of nowhere!" he laughed, ignoring his parents' warnings to stop.

**"**Ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon, we're just experiencing a short... delay, the driver needs to stabilise the engine feeds. It's perfectly routine, so if you could just stay in your seats..."

The Doctor ignored this, rising to walk toward the driver's cabin, and after a brief hesitation Sam decided not to follow him. Whatever the problem was, it was beyond the technology that she was supposed to know, so she'd have to sit this one out. While she dwelled on this, a bit frustrated with how useless she felt, the Doctor was entering the cockpit, blatantly ignoring the Hostess' pleas for him to return to his seat. Producing the psychic paper, he told the driver that he was from company insurance.

When he returned, he told all the passengers that the engines were just stabilizing, but Sam got the feeling that there was more to it than that.

"I don't need this, I'm on a schedule. This is completely unnecessary!" complained Sky irritably.

The Hostess sent everyone back to their seats, before returning to the cockpit herself. The Doctor sat down next to Sam, Dee Dee and Hobbes.

Dee Dee's next words only served to confirm Sam's feeling of unease. "Excuse me, Doctor, but they're micropetrol engines, aren't they? My father was a mechanic. Micropetrol doesn't stabilise, what does 'stabilise' mean?"

The Doctor looked a bit trapped, but managed to answer the question. "Well. Bit of flim-flam. Don't worry, they're sorting it out."

"How much air have we got?" Professor Hobbes asked, causing Sam and the Doctor to cringe. That was one sure-fire way to incite panic.

Dee Dee spoke up quickly to assure him that it was alright, but not before Val had latched onto the initial question. "Are we running out of air?"

"I was just speculating." Hobbes sounded a little miffed, and as the Hostess returned Val and Biff bombarded her with worried questions about the air, without giving her so much as a chance to answer them.

"I assure you, everything is under control." Affirmed the hostess.

Biff and his wife disagreed. "Well, doesn't look like it to me!"

And all of a sudden, everyone was talking at once as Sam blinked in amazement at the spectacle. Dee Dee was struggling to give an explanation of why everything was fine, Hobbes was muttering that he shouldn't have spoken, Val and Biff were unashamedly panicking, and the Hostess was trying to shut everyone up.

"Everyone!" called the Doctor, but no-one heard him. "Shh, shhh, shhh... QUIET!" he finally shouted.

Silence fell almost immediately, as everyone turned to look at him. "Thank you. Now, if you'd care to listen to my good friend Dee Dee..."

Finally, Dee Dee got to give her explanation. "Oh! Um... it's just that... well, the air's on a circular filter so... we could stay breathing for ten years."

Sam breathed out a relieved sigh that she hadn't even been aware she'd been holding in. The panicky atmosphere had a way of infecting you, but now reassured with solid facts, she felt it abating.

"There you go!" beamed the Doctor. "And I've spoken to the Captain, I can guarantee you, everything's fine."

Two loud knocks on the wall of the shuttle punctuated the end of his sentence.

"What was that?" Val asked, her voice tightening slightly with fear.

Professor Hobbes and Dee Dee were quick to offer explanations. "It must be the metal. We're cooling down, it's just settling..."

"Rocks. Could be rocks falling."

Consoled, the complaints moved to another area. "**W**hat I want to know is, how long do we have to sit here?"

Two more knocks sounded, this time on another part of the shuttle.

"What is that?" Sky queried loudly.

"Is someone out there?" continued Val.

Hobbes rolled his eyes. "Now, don't be ridiculous!"

Dee Dee nodded in agreement. "Like I said, it could be rocks."

**"**We're out in the open. Nothing could fall against the sides." Informed the Hostess, and Sam bit down a glare at the hostess for saying something that was only likely to cause panic. Still, she couldn't help but be curious herself about what was out there.

For the third time, there were two knocks on the wall.

"Knock, knock," quipped the Doctor.

"Who's there?' finished Jethro, a grin on his features.

Sky shuddered and Sam watched the proceedings with curiosity. "Is there something out there? Well? Anyone?" Sky continued as the knocking sounded once again.

"What the hell is making that noise?"

_Professor Hobbes gave a grim smile, followed by an explanation. __"_I'm sorry, but the light out there is Xtonic, that means it would destroy any living thing, in a split-second. It is impossible for someone to be outside."

_And once again, the two knocks, seeming to belie his statement._

_"_Well, what the hell is that, then?"

Standing and going to the most recent site of the knocks, the Doctor pressed a stethoscope to the wall, ignoring the Hostess' suggestion that he return to his seat.

"Hello?" called the Doctor, and two knocks came from the fire exit at the rear.

"It's moving…" Jethro commented in a low voice Sam felt a low fear clenching in her gut, despite the scientific improbability of something being able to live in those conditions, and therefore that there actually was an 'it' to be moving. A rattling sound came from the door, like someone was trapped outside and trying to enter.

Val was the mouthpiece of their collective fears. "It's trying the door!" she moaned. "Oh, Gods, it's going to get us."

**"**There is no 'it', there's nothing out there." Professor Hobbes snapped, not sounding quite convinced himself despite his anger. "Can't be."

Yet, apparently there was as it tried the door again, before going around, knocking twice at every place, finally stopping at the side door. All the occupants regarded it with fear and confusion. "That's the entrance. Can it get in?"

Dee Dee shook her head, once again providing answers about the vessel's mechanics. "No, that door's on two hundred weight of hydraulics."

Professor Hobbes gave her a sharp look. "Stop it. Don't encourage them."

She glared back, shuffling a little closer to Sam. "Well, what do you think it is?"

Professor Hobbes didn't have an answer for that, and Biff got up, going over to the door. He knocked on it three times and everyone waited with bated breath, before three knocks responded. "Three times! Did you hear that, it did it three times?!" exclaimed Val, followed by other expressions of amazement.

**When the Hostess told them to return to their seats, Sky began to speak, clear panic invading her tone. "**No! Don't just stand there telling us the rules! You're the hostess, you're supposed to do something!"

While she was ranting and raving, the Doctor stood up, knocked on the door four times and was answered in turn.

By now, Sky was yelling and everyone else in the cabin was staring. "What is it, what the hell's making that noise? She said she'd get me. Stop it, make it stop, somebody make it stop! Don't just stand there looking at me, it's not my fault, he started it with his stories..."

"Calm down!" Sam commanded her, stepping toward her. She placed her hand on her arm, but it was promptly wrenched off as Sky continued with her terrified prattling. "... and he made it worse, why couldn't you leave it alone? Stop staring at me! Just tell me what the hell it is!"

"Calm down," Sam tried again, this time not even trying to invade the woman's personal space, hoping that her words would be enough.

But they weren't, and as the knocking became continuous, Sky backed toward the cockpit door. "It's coming for me, ohh it's coming for me, it's coming for me... It's coming for me! It's coming for me!" she seemed to be stuck on a repeat cycle. She screamed, loudly, incoherently and the Doctor moved toward her.

"Get out of there," he warned and the whole shuttle rocked, light blinking out as sparks flew. Everyone fell over, screaming, before gasping and groaning in the darkness as the shuttle stopped moving.

"Argh... Arms. Legs. Neck. Head. Nose. I'm fine..." said the Doctor, checking himself over. "Sam?"

"I'm fine," she affirmed.

"Everyone else?"

**Hobbes absently hypothesized that it had been an earthquake, only to be shut down by Dee Dee who insisted that the ground was fixed and solid. After the Hostess' instructions, they all found torches behind their seats and started looking around. **

**They soon realized that Sky was sitting among ruined seats at the front of the shuttle with her back to everyone else, motionless.**

**While the Doctor spoke soothing words to Sky, the Hostess attempted to contact the driver through the intercom. When she couldn't reach them, she realized that the intercom must be down and opened the door, only to blind everyone with bright light. She closed the dor hurriedly as everyone screamed. **

**"**What happened? What was that?"

"Is it the driver? Have we lost the driver?"

"The cabin's gone."

"Don't be ridiculous. It can't be gone, how can it be gone?"

"Well, but you saw it!"

"There was nothing there, like it was ripped away."

While this was happening, the Doctor was fiddling with a little panel in the front wall with the sonic screwdriver. After a few minutes, he confirmed that the cabin was gone. "…But something sliced it off. You're right. The cabin's gone."

"But if it gets separated..." the Hostess trailed off, horrified realization written on her face.

"It loses integrity. I'm sorry, they've been reduced to dust. The driver and the mechanic. But they sent a distress signal. Help is on its way. They saved our lives! We're gonna get out of here, I promise. We're still alive, and they're gonna find us."

Jethro spoke up hesitantly. "Doctor. Look at her." He indicated Sky, who was still in the same position, her back to everyone else. She was unmoving.

"Right, yes, sorry... Have we got a medical kit?"

"Why won't she turn around?"

**"**What's her name?"

"Sky," Sam supplied quickly. "Sky Silvestry."

"Sky? Can you hear me?Are you all right? Can you move, Sky? Just look at me."

**"**That noise, from the outside..."

"It's stopped." Sam finished Jethro's sentence.

"Well, thank God for that." Val breathed, relieved.

"But what if it's not outside anymore? What if it's inside?" Jethro finished.

"Inside? Where?"

Jethro looked at Sky, an unreadable expression on his face. "It was heading for her."

"Sky...it's all right, Sky. I just want you to turn around, face me."

Slowly, Sky turned around to face the Doctor. Her eyes were wild, and she had the look of a wild animal. The Doctor knelt down to her level. "Sky?"

Sky repeated him with the exact same inflection.

"Are you alright?"

And once again.

**"**Are you hurt? You don't have to talk. I'm trying to help. My name's the Doctor." Every time he spoke, she repeated him mere seconds after he had finished.

He scowled. "Okay, can you stop? I'd like you to stop."

Neither request was effective.

"Why's she doing that?" asked Professor Hobbes. At this, Sky turned toward him and repeated his words.

"She's gone mad!" exclaimed Biff.

"She's gone mad!" Sky echoed.

**"**Stop it. I said stop it!"

**"**I don't think she can."

"All right, now stop it, this isn't funny."

**"**Sh, sh, sh, all of you," said the Doctor, and Sky echoed his words. Sam kept her mouth resolutely shut, thinking that she'd wait until she found out what was happening before possibly exacerbating the situation.

Jethro teased Sky for a few seconds, until the Doctor shut him up. "Why are you repeating? What is that, learning? Copying? Absorbing? The square root of pi is 1.77245385090551602729816748…" and suddenly Sam could understand neither the Doctor nor Sky, they both seemed to be speaking another language. She could, however, tell that Sky was catching up with the Doctor, speaking almost at the same time.

"Doctor," she said worriedly, breaking her silence.

"Doctor," repeated Sky, somehow repeating at the same time Professor Hobbes' conviction of "But that's impossible!"

"Doctor, I can't understand you!"

The Doctor turned to her, momentarily distracted from Sky, and frowned. "Something must be blocking that TARDIS' translation circuit. And of course, everyone else is speaking common."

The incomprehensible voices suddenly turned accusingly toward Sam and the Doctor, undoubtedly demanding to know why they were speaking in another language.

Sam continued to listen, uncomprehendingly as the Doctor calmed them, Sky his eerie echo. The conversation turned to incredulity, and they were all talking at once. Sky was still able to copy each of them, managing the replicate speed, tone and rhythm, even over the cacophony.

Suddenly, there was a high-pitched noise and the lights blinked back on, the shouting abruptly stopping. The Hostess calmly said something, and Sam realised in frustration that she still couldn't understand.

Everyone spoke calmly for a few seconds, before they realised that Sky hadn't stopped copying them as they had first thought, but that she was now speaking in tandem with them, copying their every word simultaneously as they said it. The situation once again descended into chaotic yelling, and Sam furiously cursed the fact that her inability to speak the common language meant that she was unable to help.

The Doctor silenced everyone with a few words, before crouching down and looking in Sky's eyes. He began to speak, a flurry of foreign words intermingled with ones she recognised, like "Rose Tyler, Sam Carter, TARDIS…A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O..."

He rose, speaking. Sam guessed from his tone and posture that he was hypothesising about what would happen next.

The conversation continued, and the Doctor still didn't see fit to translate for Sam, though she had to admit, she didn't think that would help. A one point, Dee Dee recited what Sam guessed was poetry and she wondered in utter confusion what the conversation could be about.

Jethro said something, and Professor Hobbes protested vehemently. She supposed he must have said something about life, because sure enough this set the Doctor off into a tirade, using that same tone he always did when challenging lifelong beliefs.

The Hostess suggested something, and everyone turned on Sky, looking at her like she was dangerous, like they were going to hurt her…

Apprehension built in Sam's gut as she watched the conversation evolving. The Doctor was vehemently opposed to whatever was happening, but everyone else appeared to be trying to convince him of a point.

When the Doctor moved toward the door, standing in front of it, Sam realised with horror that they wanted to throw Sky out, and that the Doctor's attempts to prevent them weren't going to be much good. For a moment, they had stopped at the sight of him in the door, but soon they appeared not to care. The Hostess started telling the others something, and the situation seemed to devolve into an interrogation of the Doctor. He was frantically pointing between her and himself, and eventually he blurted out the name, 'Ted Carter', but they shook their heads, Dee Dee pointing at Sam and saying something.

Inwardly, Sam cursed herself for whatever thing she'd said that meant no one would be convinced that they were siblings. Now it seemed that everyone else in the cabin was turning on him, and there was nothing she could do about it. With every word that the others said, they seemed to become more and more convinced of their theory.

Suddenly there was a silence and Sam bit her lip. Whatever the Doctor had said, it hadn't pleased the others. The Doctor desperately tried to take whatever it was back (knowing him, it was something incredibly arrogant too, like he was smarter than them) but it they would have none of it. It was starting to look like they were going to throw him out at the same time as they threw out Sky.

And they were all still talking at once, Sam though with resignation. Slowly, it dawned on her. Sky was no longer repeating everything that everyone said. She said a quick thank you to whichever deity was responsible, but then the Doctor spoke and she realised with a jolt that it was now only copying him.

The Doctor had realised the same thing (and so had all the others) and had leant down in front of Sky, saying calm, soothing words and looking at her expectantly. Then Sky spoke, followed by the Doctor.

There was a stunned silence as the cabin's occupants assimilated this into their consciousness.

**Now the Doctor was crouched, mimicking Sky's earlier mobility, while Sky began to flex her hands and turn her head. **

_The others seemed to think that the entity had transferred, but Dee Dee and Sam weren't so sure. Sam was incapable of communicating her doubts, so stayed silent, and Dee Dee's attempts to explain were continually muffled by the others. Sam's personal theory, based on her observations, was that it repeated, synchronised, then moved onto the next stage. Exactly what that 'next stage' was, she was unsure. Whatever it was, she noted grimly, it seemed to be draining him of his life force. _

_The others in the room seemed to forget that the Doctor could now only repeat, and were growing more and more agitated with every word he said._

_Dee Dee tried to explain this, or at least, that's what Sam assumed she was trying to explain, and Professor Hobbes glared at her, harshly snapping out something cruel that made Dee Dee take a step back in shock. She was watching these progressions with such interest that she didn't notice Sky's satisfied smile._

_Now Sky was saying something in a low voice, something that Sam couldn't understand but still made her shudder. The others were still arguing among themselves, and Sam was looking at the Doctor, anxiously trying to think of a solution when she didn't even know the problem. His eyes were pleading, showing her something she'd rarely seen in his face: fear. He was desperately trying to fight the thing possessively, but he was not good enough. Between arguing, Biff got up to drag the Doctor so the door. This was something that Sam could fight against, she thought with satisfaction, pulling the Doctor further back into the cabin and glaring as the others tried to approach. Biff tugged at he Doctor, saying something and Sam twisted his arm away, and he yelped in pain. In response, Jethro and the Professor began to tug at the Doctor, egged on by Sky's cheering._

"Allonz-y!" Sam heard the Doctor call.

"Wait!" she heard the Hostess calling, and shocked by her return to comprehension, she loosened her grip on the Doctor's arm, allowing Jethro, the Professor and Biff to tug him toward the door.

"That's his voice" the Hostess was saying, realisation dawning on her.

"The starlight waits!" Sky was saying.

"She's taken his voice!" continued the Hostess.

The Doctor echoed Sky's words.

**"**The emptiness!" Sky and the Doctor called. "The Midnight Sky!"

"Get him out!" Val called loudly, her judgement clouded by her fear.

**The Hostess took a deep breath. "**It's her. She's taken his voice!" with these words, she lunged for Sky, pushing the button that opened the fire exit. A brilliant, blinding light streamed into shuttle, ripping terrified screams from their throats. The Hostess stood at the door, holding sky and counting. Once she reached six, the pressure wall collapsed and they were both sucked outside. The door slid calmly closed.

The three men let go of the Doctor, and he slumped limply into Sam's grip as she held him upright.

_"_It's gone, it's gone... It's gone, it's gone, it's gone... It's gone. It's gone... It's gone, it's gone, it's gone... It's gone, it's gone, it's gone..." he was muttering, and she lowered him into his seat. He smiled up at her, still panting. "Thanks, sis."

She quirked a lip upward in response, but couldn't manage a full-blown smile so soon after such panic. The others were still breathing heavily, now realising what they had been about to do.

"I said it was her," Val attempted to justify herself, feebly.

No one had any response to that.

**20 MINUTES LATER...**

Everyone was sitting by themselves, silently, except for Sam and the Doctor. The Doctor was explaining what had been said while she couldn't understand in a whisper, careful not to disturb the quiet of the cabin.

"Why did that happen?" she was asking about the translation malfunction.

"It doesn't always work when I've been knocked unconscious, either," he said, thinking of when he'd first regenerated into this form. "I think that whatever it was… it got into our brains, and to the TARDIS, we may as well have been unconscious."

Sam nodded in acceptance. "Well, I never want to feel so useless again. I know I can't learn every language, but could you at least teach me Common? They've used that in a lot of the places we've been."

The Doctor nodded. "Of course."

The intercom blared to life, effectively closing the conversation for them. "Repeat, Crusader 50, rescue vehicle coming alongside in three minutes, door-seals set to automatic. Prepare for boarding, repeat, prepare for boarding."

"The Hostess... what was her name?" asked the Doctor, directing it toward the whole cabin.

Sam swallowed her guilt and looked down, and everyone else was doing the same.

"I don't know."

**AN:** This chapter relies heavily on the transcript of the episode Midnight, obtained from http : / / who - transcripts . atspace . com . Before anyone asks why Donna never noticed the whole translation error thing… she was sunbathing. I can't imagine she would have spoken to anyone. Yes, it might have made it convenient for me, I'll admit that, but I also hope it made it more interesting. Let me know how you liked this chapter.

Also, I'm incredibly sorry for how late it is, I wanted to have it up two weeks ago, but it just wasn't ready. I almost gave up on this chapter and wrote a different episode, but I thought it was important to see that Sam and the Doctor do have failings and can't save everyone, or even understand everything.


	6. Fires of Pompeii

**Astrophysics in Action**

**Post Doomsday. What if the Doctor had a different companion? Say… Samantha Carter? Crossover with Stargate: SG-1**

**Chapter Five: The Fires of Pompeii**

At Sam's insistence, they had spent the last day with Sam's grandfather. While it would have been nice to visit the rest of the family, she didn't fancy a repeat of the interrogation that Jacob had given them after her Grandmother's funeral.

"So where are you taking my granddaughter now, Doctor?" Thom asked with a grin.

The Doctor shrugged his shoulders. "We haven't decided yet. Any ideas, Sam?"

Sam shook her head in the negative. "Would you like to choose, Grandad? We could tell you all about it when we get back, if you wanted," she suggested, not bothering to look to the Doctor for approval first: she knew he'd be fine with it.

Thom was silent for a few minutes, looking into the distance thoughtfully. "I've had a long time to think about it," he began. "After I met you when I was young I used to spend hours on end wondering where I'd like to go. At first I thought about going to the future, but then, well, I figured there was so much we don't know about the past. I developed an interest in ancient cultures. I would really love to know what the ancient societies were like. I'm too old to go now, but if you could tell me,"

Sam nodded at his reasoning and the Doctor grinned. "Which one then? Egyptian, Greek, Roman?"

"Roman." Thom said.

"Ancient Rome it is then," grinned the Doctor.

Sam smiled and hugged her grandfather, kissing him on the cheek. "I'll bring you back a souvenir. See you soon, Grandad!"

Saying their goodbyes, they stepped into TARDIS and it dematerialised, leaving Thom's living room empty.

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and pushed aside a rough curtain, a broad smile on his face. Sam stood beside him.

"Welcome, Samantha Carter, to Ancient Rome," he said dramatically. "Well, not to them, obviously. To all intents and purposes right now... this is brand new Rome."

Sam looked around. "You know what I find strange about going into the past?"

The Doctor shook his head. "What?"

"Everyone here is dead. Their lives have completely… finished. And yet, here we are, and they're still in the middle of living."

"Brilliant, isn't it?" grinned the Doctor. "Not that you'd want to tell them that. They might take offense."

Sam laughed. "So, we're speaking Latin? I did Latin in school. Well, a bit anyway."

"Uh-hum," agreed the Doctor. "But it's nothing like what you would have learnt. Anyway, what do you think we should get for Thom?"

Sam shrugged. "I'll just have a look around the stalls, see if I can find anything interesting."

"And I'll stay here," responded the Doctor.

Sam frowned at him. "What, aren't you up for a little shopping?"

He shook his head. "I know better than to go shopping with women. You should have seen how much stuff Rose would buy on these little trips," a nostalgic smile crossed his face.

Sam rolled her eyes, "Still, in the eight months we've been travelling together, you've avoided every shopping opportunity. You've never been shopping with me, how do you know how I shop? I'm surprisingly efficient," she told him, grinning up at him. "People tell me that I shop like a man. Now come on, help me find something for Grandad, then we can explore all we like."

The Doctor reluctantly agreed, following Sam wove through the streets, neither of them noticing the red-robed woman that was following them. The Doctor started babbling about his earlier trips to Ancient Rome ("…that fire had nothing to do with me. Well, a little bit, but I hadn't gotten the chance to look around properly. Colosseum... Pantheon... Circus Maximus... You'd expect them to be looming by now...")

Sam was unconcerned by this, and paused at a stall. "Hi."

"Hello, sweetheart. What can I get for you, my love?"

Sam spread her hands in the universal gesture of 'I don't know'. "I'm looking for a gift for my grandfather. He's never been to Rome."

The Stallholder looked at her strangely. "Neither have I. You're in Pompeii, love."

"Oh," Sam's jaw dropped and she glared at the Doctor.

"Well, that would explain why we can't see the Colosseum, then," he said in response, before speaking to the stallholder himself. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know the date, year inclusive, would you?"

The Stallholder looked confused at the odd question, but obliged anyway. "It's the twenty third day of Augustus, the Year of Our Lord 79."

"Huh," a sheepish smile dangled on the Doctor's lips. "What do you know? We're in Pompeii, and it's volcano day tomorrow."

Sam stared blankly in response. The Doctor's words were driven home by the ground shaking beneath their feet, and the stallholders diving to rescue their goods. "Here we go again," they groaned.

Sam and the Doctor looked warily at the mountain in the distance.

"So…" said the Doctor slowly. "Wanna head back to the TARDIS?"

"I like that plan," Sam agreed as they both took off, racing through the streets of Pompeii. Soon they arrived at where they had left the TARDIS, but it was conspicuously absent.

"Tell me that the TARDIS hasn't disappeared," Sam groaned.

"The TARDIS hasn't disappeared," the Doctor said obediently, to which Sam sighed resignedly.

"Excuse me," Sam said to the closest stallholder. "There was a big blue box… right… here," she gestured. "Did you see what happened to it?"

The stallholder had an annoyingly smug grin on his face. "I sold it, didn't I?"

"But… it's mine. It wasn't yours to sell!" protested the Doctor.

The stallholder shrugged, not seeming to care much about his actions. "It was on my patch, wasn't it? I got 15 sesterce for it. Lovely jubbly." Sam eyed him in disgust. He was rubbing his hands together in glee.

"Who did you sell it to?"

"Old Caecilius." The stallholder supplied. "Look... if you want to argue, why don't you take it up with him? He's on Foss Street. Big villa, can't miss it."

"I think we will, thanks," Sam agreed, already pulling the Doctor off in the direction the stallholder had indicated.

The Doctor came along, slightly bemused. "Why would anyone buy a big, blue wooden box? It's not like he knows exactly what it's for, is it?"

Spying an amphitheatre, Sam stopped. "Doctor, we could evacuate everyone, right? That's what we do, stop horrible tragedies like this from happening."

The Doctor sighed. "We could. Hypothetically. But we're not going to, Sam."

"Why not?"

"Sam," he sighed. "You know why not. Pompeii is a fixed point in history. What happens, happens. There is no stopping it."

"What makes Pompeii a fixed point and all those other things not?" she was genuinely curious, not to mention the biting guilt that was curling in her gut at the thought of all these people around her being dead the next day when she could do something to help them.

"Sam, the simple fact that you know that all these people die here. Say we save them, yeah? Then you never know that it happened, you don't suggest saving them, we don't save them, and we're right back where we started. The whole world would either be stuck in an enormous 2000 year time loop, or the reapers would come and destroy them all anyway. There's nothing you can do."

Sam frowned, still not happy with the explanation.

"What actually happens when we change something in a fixed timeline? Does it create an alternate universe in which we did and one in which we didn't? Or does it just change this reality?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No, Sam. Whatever you're planning won't work. And alternate universes are a completely different matter that we just don't have time to get into right now."

Sam sighed, knowing he was right, but still raking her brain for a way around it.

"Positions!" they heard a voice commanding exuberantly from the inside of the villa as yet another earthquake shook the ground. There were sounds of rushed movement, as Sam and the Doctor entered. The Doctor managed to catch a toppling bust and rebalanced it on its pedestal.

"Whoa," he said, slapping its cheek. "There you go,"

"Thank you, kind sir," said the man, clearly the head of the household. "I'm afraid business is closed for the day. I'm expecting a visitor."

"Oh, that's me," grinned the Doctor, leaning forward to shake his hand. "I'm a visitor. Hello."

Sam lightly whacked his arm and while she managed to suppress her giggles, a wide smile broke out on her face over his antics.

"Who are you?" demanded the man, whom they deduced was Old Caecilius , looking confused.

The Doctor dithered a moment, clearly trying to decide which of his numerous identities to use. Finally, he made up a new one. "I'm Spartacus," he said at the same time as Sam declared that she was, in fact, Spartacus.

"Mr and Mrs Spartacus?" asked the man.

"No!" Sam protested loudly. "He's my brother!" While it wasn't quite the truth, the thought was as repulsive to her as if it had been Mark. After all, they had been gallivanting around the universe, pretending to be brother and sister for such a long time that they each considered the other in that exact manner.

"Oh no, we're not married," the Doctor was protesting just as vehemently.

The man looked apologetic. "Yes, of course. You look very much alike."

"Really?" asked Sam. It had been said before, of course, but neither of them could see the resemblance.

"Yes, the nose, jaw line… and the forehead," Caecilius agreed, before shaking his head, pulling himself out of that train of thought and starting again. "I'm sorry, but I'm not open for trade."

"And that trade would be?" the Doctor trailed off, letting Caecilius jump in.

"Marble. Lucius Caecilius. Mining, polishing and design thereof. If you want marble, I'm your man."

The Doctor held up the psychic paper and Sam groaned, preparing herself to be passed off as the inferior assistant once again. "That's good. That's good, 'cause I'm the marble inspector."

Caecilius' wife gasped in shock and pulled a glass of wine from her son's hand. "By the gods of commerce, an inspection.  I'm sorry, sir. I do apologize for my son." She poured the wine into the pool, ignoring the boy's indignant yelp.

"This is my good wife, Metella. I-- I must confess, we're not prepared for an-,"

The Doctor cut him off with a smile, "Nothing to worry about. I- I'm sure you've got nothing to hide. Although, frankly, that..." he gestured toward the TARDIS, sitting in the corner of the room, "object... rather looks like wood to me." He and Sam approached it casually.

Metella shot a glare at her husband, hissing. "I told you to get rid of it!"

"I only bought it today!" Caecilius protested.

The Doctor shrugged nonchalantly. "Ah, well. Caveat emptor."

"Oh, you're Celtic. There's lovely." Sam rolled her eyes, wondering for the billionth time why the TARDIS would translate something if it was already in the target language. It certainly hadn't helped her Common lessons, the Doctor had to turn it off for those. She turned her mind back to the Doctor, who was in the process of asking the family to turn over the TARDIS for a proper inspection.

Suddenly, Sam saw it: she might not be able to save everyone in Pompeii, but surely they could save a few people. "Doctor, we need to talk," she hissed, and frowning, he loudly made a comment about greeting the household gods and pulled her off to the side.

She explained her plan to him, and with a pained look on his face he shook his head. "Sam, we can't."

"Why not? You said that we can't evacuate the whole city because I know that it wasn't evacuated, but it's not like we know exactly who died in the eruption. For all we know, we could have already saved them and if we don't it will cause a paradox."

"That's not how it works, and you know it, Sam," he admonished.

Sam frowned, distressed. "I don't like this at al, Doctor. Can't we just recommend that they take a holiday or something?"

Before Sam and the Doctor could finish arguing the point, a servant entered the room. "Announcing Lucius Petrus Dextrus, Chief Augur of the city government."

At this, an older man strode in, confidence apparent in his stride.

"Lucius, my pleasure as always," greeted Caecilius. Sam and the Doctor left the shrine, their curiosity about the visitor getting the better of them.

Metella turned to her son, "Quintus, stand up!" she ordered, and the boy reluctantly did so.

Caecilius extended his hand for Lucius to shake, but the man ignored it. "A rare and great honour, sir, for you to come to my house."

"The birds are flying north... and the wind is in the west." Sam blinked at Lucius' cryptic words.

The tone of Caecilius' reply conveyed his puzzlement. "Right. Absolutely. That's good, is it?"

"Only the grain of wheat knows where it will grow." Sam began to get the horrible feeling that she was stuck in philosophy 101.

"There now, Metella, have you ever heard such wisdom?"

"Never. It's an honour."

"Pardon me, sir, I have guests. This is Spartacus, and, uh, Spartacus."

The Doctor waved, but Sam merely smile in acknowledgement.

"A name is but a cloud upon a summer wind."

"But the wind is felt most keenly in the dark," the Doctor concluded.

"Ah! What is the dark other than an omen of the sun?"

"I concede that every sun must set..."

"Ha!"

"...and yet the son of the father must also rise."

Sam looked on in bewilderment, while Lucius smiled broadly at the Doctor. "Damn. Very clever, sir. Evidently a man of learning."

"Oh yes, but don't mind me. Don't want to disturb the status quo."

"He's Celtic," Caecilius informed Lucius in a whisper, as though that explained everything.

"Well, we'll be off in a minute," said the Doctor, taking Sam's hand.

Sam stood firmly. "Oh, no, we're not. You never finished explaining why you've suddenly decided to abandon all your morals, stomp mine into the sidewalk and let all these people die."

"I told you, it's not like that!" he protested.

"On the contrary, it's exactly like that."

"Sam, I'm ordering you to come with me."

"You're not in the Air Force," Sam dismissed. "And besides, I've been AWOL for 8 months, what's a little insubordination?"

"Okay, point one: I may not be in the military, but I am your only way home. And two, I told you no matter how long we stay here, you'll only be gone for your two weeks leave. Now, I've had a lot more experience in this sort of situation than you, and I hate to do it, but we have to. Okay?"

Suitably chastised, Sam nodded. He threw a brief look over his shoulder, intending to go straight to the TARDIS once Sam was following him, but paused in amazement when he saw what Caecilius had unveiled to Lucius.

"Oh now that's... different. Who designed that then?"

"My lord Lucius was very specific."

"Where'd you get the pattern?" Sam asked, amazed. "It's a stone circuit!" she told the Doctor, and he nodded his agreement.

"On the rain and mist and wind."

"Ah, what you mean to say is that it was transmitted to you via subconscious broadcast? By a dream?"

Lucius looked at him as though he were an idiot. "That is my job... as City Augur."

"What's an Augur? I assume the position comes with some level of power over the city, is it similar to a mayor?"

"Oh, ah, you must excuse my sister. She was raised in… Barcelona," he told the others, then quietly explained to Sam. "This is an age of superstition... of official superstition. The augur is paid by the city to tell the future. "The wind will blow from the west." That's the equivalent of the 10:00 news."

A thin, drawn girl entered the room. She looked as though she was barely able to support herself, and her face was pale with illness. "They're laughing at us. Those two, they use words like tricksters. They're mocking us."

"No, no. I meant no offence," said the Doctor, quickly backpedalling.

"I'm sorry. My daughter's been consuming the vapours."

Quintus looked appalled. "By the gods, Mother! What have you been doing to her?"

"Not now, Quintus."

"But she's sick. Just look at her!" the boy protested. His parents ignored him, and Lucius raised an eyebrow.

"I gather I have a rival in this household. Another with the gift."

Metella was proud of her daughter. " Oh, she's been promised to the Sibylline Sisterhood. They say she has remarkable visions."

"The prophecies of women are limited and dull. Only the men folk have the capacity for true perception."

Sam may not have believed that anyone had the 'capacity for true perception,' but she didn't like the chauvinistic attitudes demonstrated by this man. She began to say something to that effect, but was halted by the Doctor's hand on her arm, reminding her that now was not the time.

The ground quaked beneath their feet again.

"Consuming the vapours, you say?" asked the Doctor.

"They give me strength." Evelina confirmed.

The Doctor quirked an eyebrow. "It doesn't look like it to me."

"Is that your opinion... as a doctor?"

The Doctor gaped in amazement. "I beg your pardon?"

"Doctor. That's your name."

The Doctor was bewildered. "How did you know that?"

Evelina didn't answer this question, turning to Sam. "And you, you call yourself the name of a man. Sam."

"Now then Evelina, don't be rude."

The Doctor waved her off, now intensely curious. "No, no, no. Let her talk."

"You both come from so far away."

Lucius dismissed all this with an unconcerned glance. "A female soothsayer in inclined to invent all sorts of vagaries."

"Oh, not this time, Lucius. I reckon you've been out-soothsaid."

"Is that so... man from Gallifrey?"

"What?" exclaimed the Doctor, gaping in shock.

"Strangest of images. Your home is lost in fire, is it not?"

Sam herself was amazed as well. She had never been one to believe in these kinds of things, but could not deny the evidence before her. "Doctor, what are they doing?"

"And you, daughter of... America."

"How does he know that?" Sam asked.

"This is the gift of Pompeii. Every single oracle tells the truth."

"That's not possible. It doesn't make sense."

"Doctor, he will return."

"Who? Who's he?" but the Doctor's question remained unanswered.

Lucius continued. "And you, Daughter of America... your friend will die before he meets you."

Sam shook her head in confusion. "What on Earth is that supposed to mean?"

Evelina made another prediction. "Even the word "Doctor" is false. Your real name is hidden. It burns in the stars of the cascade of Medusa herself. You are a lord, sir. A lord... of time..."

Evelina trailed off, growing paler with the last of her words, before collapsing to the ground in a dead faint.

"Evelina!"

Sam, the Doctor and Metella rushed to Evelina's prone figure.

Evelina was unconscious on the bed, Metella sitting at her side and stroking fingers through her daughter's hair.

"She didn't mean to be rude. She's ever such a good girl. But when the gods speak through her..." Metella trailed off, unwrapping a cloth from her arm.

"May I ask what's wrong with her arm?" Sam said delicately, eyeing what appeared to be a growth.

"An irritation of the skin," Metella informed her matter-of-factly. "She never complains, bless her. We bathe it in olive oil every night."

"What is it, specifically, if you know?"

Metella looked at her daughter again, love and concern shining in her eyes. "Evelina said you'd come from far away. Please, have you ever seen anything like it?" Metella was practically begging.

Sam knew that medicine wasn't her specialty, but she there was not way she wasn't going to at least try. She stepped a little closer, and cautiously ran a finger along her arm. What she found amazed her. "It's stone."

The Doctor and Caecilius were in the main room, at the hypocaust, a type of Ancient Roman central heating system. The Doctor removed the grille covering it. "Ah! Different sort of hypocaust."

Caecilius nodded. "Oh yes, we're very advanced in Pompeii. In Rome, they're still using the old wood-burning furnaces, but we've got hot springs... leading from Vesuvius itself."

"Who thought of that?"

Caecilius was more than happy to provide the Doctor with the answers he was seeking. "The soothsayers, after the great earthquake seventeen years ago. An awful lot of damage but we rebuilt."

"Didn't you think of moving away? Oh, no, then again, San Francisco."

Caecilius frowned at the reference, but evidently decided to ignore it. The Doctor looked down into the Earth where they both heard a loud grating and rumbling.

"What's that noise, then?"

"Don't know. Happens all the time. They say the gods of the Underworld are stirring," explained Caecilius.

The Doctor nodded, suddenly coming to an understanding. "But after the earthquake... let me guess. Is that when the soothsayers started making sense?"

"Oh yes, very much so. I mean, they'd always been... shall we say "imprecise"? But then... the soothsayers, the augurs, the haruspex--all of them, they saw the truth again and again. It's quite amazing. They can predict crops and rainfall with absolute precision."

"Have they said anything about tomorrow?"

"No. Why should they? Why do you ask?"

"No, no, no reason. Just asking. But the soothsayers... they all consume the vapours?"

The man nodded. "That's how they see."

The Doctor donned his glasses, leaning in closer to the hypocaust, and pinching the rock. "They're all consuming this." He announced as he straightened.

Caecilius didn't appear to be too bothered about it. "Dust?"

"Tiny particles of rock." He casually plopped one on his tongue, tasting. "They're breathing in Vesuvius."

After convincing Quintus to tell him where Lucius Petrus Dextrus lived, the by had insisted on leading him there himself. He stopped outside Lucius' quarters. "Don't tell my dad," Quintus pleaded quickly.

The Doctor leapt up on a barrel, climbing on the windowsill. "Deal. Don't tell mine either." He entered the villa, and got Quintus to pass him the torch, so that the boy could follow. Pulling down the curtain, more circuits were revealed.

"The liar. He told my father it was the only one," Quintus said bitterly.

The Doctor put his glasses on, examining one. "Well... plenty of marble merchants in this town. Tell them all the same thing; get all the components from different places so no one can see what you're building."

Quintus looked again at all the circuits, none of it making any sense to him. "Which is what?"

Lucius answered his question, steeping out from the shadows. "The future... Doctor.  We are building the future as dictated by the gods."

Sam wasn't quite sure how she'd managed it this yet again. She'd come in her normal clothes, her jeans, tee shirt and the Doctor's leather jacket. They had looked fine. No-one had pointed them out as weird or unusual, yet here she was, once again in the native garb. She stared at herself incredulously in the mirror. The deep purple-blue gown did look good on her… but still! How had she been convinced to do this?

"You look lovely, Sam!" Evelina smiled happily, and Sam suddenly realised exactly how she'd managed it. She had to have a stronger willpower against the natives.

Sam sat next to the teen on the bed. "What do you do here, then... girls your age? Do you have friends? Do you go shopping together, or to the theatre – amphitheatre?"

Evelina shook her head. "I'm promised to the sisterhood for the rest of my life."

"Was that your decision?"

"Well, no," Evelina said as though the thought hadn't even occurred to her. "I have the gift of sight. The sisters chose for me?"

"So what do you see for tomorrow?" Sam prodded gently, still trying to see a way out of this.

"Is tomorrow special?"

"I don't know. Is it?"

Evelina closed her eyes for a minute, concentrating. "The sun will rise. The sun will set. Nothing special at all." Her eyes reopened.

Sam struggled internally for a few seconds, before deciding something. "Look, don't tell my brother I said anything, but I've got a prediction as well."

Evelina abruptly brought her hands to her eyes. Two decorative eyes were painted on the backs of her hands, so Sam could only see these false eyes. "Evelina, please listen," she prompted, unaware that Evelina's position linked her with the sisterhood to whom she was promised and that they were all able to hear her.

"There is only one prophecy."

"Just listen to me. Tomorrow, that mountain is going to explode. Evelina, please listen. The air is going to fill with ash and rocks... and the whole town will suffocate."

"That's not true."

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, I don't want it to be true. But it is. So please, just for tomorrow, leave town with your family. If I'm wrong, you can come back later. If I'm not, then you're safe."

"This is false prophecy!" Evelina was upset, and tore her hands from her eyes, breaking contact with the sisters.

Neither of them were aware that the Sibylline Sisterhood was planning the downfall of the false prophet.

"It's an energy converter," acknowledged the Doctor.

Lucius looked unimpressed. "An energy converter of what?"

"I don't know. Isn't that brilliant? I love not knowing, keeps me on my toes.  It must be awful, being a prophet. Waking up every morning, "Is it raining? Yes, it is. I said so." Takes all the fun out of life. But who designed this, Lucius? Hmm? Who gave you these instructions?"

Lucius refused to give a straight answer, and at the Doctor's insistence declared that he was insulting the gods and called in the guards.

Lunging, the Doctor grabbed Lucius' hand as yanked. To his surprise, the forearm came clean off. "Show me."

Lucius threw back his cloak, revealing the stump of a stone arm. "The work of the gods!" he declared.

"He's stone! 'Armless enough, though," he laughed at his own joke. He threw the arm back to Lucius and dashed over to the circuit, calling Quintus.

Quintus threw the torch at one of the guards and clambered out the window while the Doctor used the Sonic Screwdriver on the circuits. "Out! Out! Out! Hurry!"

The Doctor landed lightly on the street. "Run!"

He had been unable to damage the circuits, and Lucius began a chant, beseeching the mountain: "This man would prevent the rise of Pompeii.

A snarling sound came from below.

"Lord, I beg of you, show yourself!"

The snarl increased in volume.

"Show yourself!"

A large, hulking rack-magma creature appeared below.

Back on the streets of Pompeii, Quintus and the Doctor slowed. "No sign of 'em. Nice little bit of allons-y. I think we're all right."

"But his arm, Doctor. Is that what's happening to Evelina?"

A loud boom echoed through the night time silence, preventing the Doctor from answering.

"What's that?"

They turned around. "The mountain?" Quintus suggested.

"No, it's closer than that." They paused briefly, listening. "They're footsteps."

"It can't be." Quintus denied.

The Doctor turned Quintus back around, and they began to run again. As they passed vents, steam blew up in geysers.

They dashed into Caecilius' villa, the Doctor already shouting instructions at them. "All of you, get out! We're being followed!"

The grille over the hypocaust was blown into the air and the Doctor tried to herd everyone out of the door, the ground beneath the hypocaust cracking ominously, followed by an enormous rumble.

No one moved. A creature, made from stone and magma, forced its way through the crack in the ground and Evelina gasped. "The gods are with us!"

"Water!" shouted the Doctor, "We need water! Quintus, all of you, get water! Sam!" Sam shook herself out of her shock, and ran with Quintus and a servant to go get water.

"Blessed are we to see the gods," said Rhombus the servant as he stepped toward it. It breathed fire, burning the poor servant to a crisp.

The Doctor stepped closer, but kept his hands in front of him, almost like a surrender.

"Talk to me! That's all I want! Talk to me. Tell me who you are. Don't hurt these people."

BREAK

Sam was ruching back toward the house, a bucket of water in hand, when she was halted by members of the sisterhood. "Doctor!" she cried, but her words were lost in a fist of fabric.

Realising that she was once again being kidnapped, she almost rolled her eyes. This was becoming quite a habit. She quickly assessed her situation. Both her arms and legs were restrained. If she put up too much of a struggle, they'd likely knock her out. She forced herself to relax and allowed them to cart her away.

BREAK

"Talk to me. I'm the Doctor. Tell me who you are,"

The creature prepared to breathe on the Doctor just as Quintus and the servant returned with urns, filled them with water and tossed it over the creature. Abruptly, the creature's motion ceased and after a second it fell, crumbling into pieces.

"What was it?"

"Carapace of stone... held together by internal magma. Not too difficult to stop. But I reckon that's just a foot soldier," he assessed, looking around to the other people in the house.

"Doctor..." began Metella, "or whatever your name is... you bring bad luck in this house."

The Doctor frowned at her. "I thought your son was brilliant. Aren't you going to thank him?"

Quintus was amazed at the praise, and Metella wrapped him in a hug. The Doctor continued. "Still... guess there are aliens at work in Pompeii and it's a good thing we stayed. Sam! Sam?"

He whirled around, searching for her. "Sam?!" when there was no response, he groaned.

BREAK

"Well, that's new," Sam quipped, lying on the sacrificial alter while Spurrina, a Priestess, held a dagger above her.

"The false prophet will surrender both her blood and her breath,"

Sam groaned, now realising that her earlier words were to blame. "Look, maybe I made up a prophecy… surely there's some other way of settling this?"

"Silence!" Spurrina ordered.

Sam shook her head, attempting the free her hands. "You do know I'm going to escape, right? My brother is going to come soon, you know."

Spurrina raised the dagger above her head in preparation to strike. "This prattling will cease... forever."

"Oh, that'll be the day!"

Sam grinned at the Doctor's timely arrival.

"I told you my brother would come."

Spurrina made feeble protestations about no men being allowed in the temple, but the Doctor didn't care, instead going off on a ramble about meeting Sibyl. He made sure Sam was alright before releasing her from the ropes with the Sonic Screwdriver, and Sam once again wished she had one. He put it away and Sam focused her attention on the Doctor's speech to the Sibylline Priestess. "…All her wisdom and insight turned sour. Is that how you spread the word, eh? On the blade of a knife?"

"Yes... a knife that now welcomes you!" Spurrina raised the knife, preparing to attack the Doctor with it.

A voice interrupted. "Show me this man."

They all turned towards the curtain and the sisters knelt. Spurrina spoke, a tone of reverence in her voice. "High Priestess, the stranger would defy us!"

The High Priestess disregarded her words. "Let me see. This one is different. He carries starlight in his wake."

Sam and the Doctor exchanged a glance, once again amazed at the accuracy of the predictions. They approached the curtain. "Ah, very perceptive. Where do these words of wisdom come from?"

The voice behind the curtain responded surely. "The gods whisper to me."

"Oh, they've done far more than that. Ah, might I beg audience, look upon the High Priestess?"

The curtains parted and it was only the fact that Sam had learnt to expect strange occurrences in her life that kept her from gasping and exclaiming. The priestess' body was almost completely converted to stone.

"What happened?" Sam asked respectfully.

"The heavens have blessed me."

With permission, the Doctor moved forward and touched her arm. Sam was amazed, quickly deducing that this was what was happening to all the Soothsayers of Pompeii. The only thing she couldn't work out was why.

"They're stone," Sam stated unnecessarily.

"Exactly." Said the Doctor, standing up and walking back to Sam. "The people of Pompeii are turning to stone before the volcano erupts. But why?"

"This word... this image in your mind, this "volcano", what is that?"

"More to the point," began the Doctor.

Sam finished for him. "Why don't you know? Why haven't you predicted it. Who are you?"

"High Priestess of the Sibylline."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, no, no, no. I'm talking to the creature inside you. The thing that's seeding itself into a human body, in the dust in the lungs... taking over the flesh and turning it into... what?"

The High Priestess cut him off, informing his that his knowledge was impossible. He countered that she could read his mind, and therefore it was not.

Something spoke through the High Priestess. "We... are... awakening!"

"The voice of the gods!" Spurrina proclaimed.

The sisterhood set up a chant. "Words of wisdom, words of power. Words of wisdom, words of power."

"Name yourself!" Sam was familiar with this demand, knew the rest of what he was going to say exactly. "Planet of origin, galactic coordinates, species designation according to the universal ratification of the Shadow Proclamation."

"We... are... rising!"

"Tell me your name!"

The High Priestess threw back her hood. "Pyrovile!"

The sisters repeated her, taking up the word as part of their chant.

"Pyrovile?" Sam asked.

"One's growing inside her. She's at the halfway stage. The adult version is that thing that we saw in the village."

"And the breath of a Pyrovile will incinerate you, Doctor."

He produced a water pistol. "I warn you... I'm armed.  Sam, get that grille open."

"What are the Pyrovile doing here?"

"We fell from the heavens. We fell so far and so fast we were rendered into dust."

Sam was listening to the conversation while she worked on the grille, and suddenly it all made sense. The High Priestess explained what had happened.

Thousands of ears ago, the Pyrovile fell to the Earth, where they slept. Then, seventeen year ago they awoke and began to use the human bodies to reconstitute themselves, accidentally awakening psychic powers. "…Yeah, but... seeing the future, that is way beyond psychic, you can see through time. Where does the gift of prophecy come from?"

Spurrina was warily watching the Doctor, and the High Priestess moaned.

"I got it!" Sam exclaimed, looking to the Doctor for further instruction. She still had no idea what he was trying to do here.

"Now get down." He moved towards her, water pistol still aimed at the High Priestess.

Sam was slightly sceptical, but had learnt to trust the Doctor, and hopped in. The Doctor followed after her.

"This way."

"Where are we going now?"

"Into the volcano."

Sam stopped, staring at him. "You're not serious?"

"Very serious, Sam. C'mon."

"So aliens are the cause of the volcano then?"

"Seems that way,"

"Well, can't we fix it then?"

The Doctor looked pained. "I know what you're saying Sam. And I know you understand why we can't. Please, listen. Some things must happen. That's how I see the universe, because I'm a Time Lord. Every waking second, I can see what is, what was... what could be, what must not. That's the burden of the Time Lord, Sam. I'm the only one left."

The Doctor walked ahead and Sam silenced, sorry to have brought up this sore point once again.

The shrill screech of a Pyrovile followed them down the passage. "They know we're here! Come on."

Sam and the Doctor arrived in an enormous cavern. The Pyrovile were walking around casually. "It's the heart of Vesuvius. We're right inside the mountain."

"That's a lot of Pyrovile-s? Is it a regular plural?"

"Collective noun, like sheep and rice," the Doctor answered absently, taking out a small collapsible telescope and looking through at something in the distance. "What is that thing?"

Sam assessed it herself. "I'm no expert, but I'd say that's what they arrived in. Looks like a ship of some sort."

The Doctor, agreeing with her assessment, took back his telescope and collapsed it, shoving it back into his pockets. "So why do they need a volcano?" asked the Doctor, more t himself than to Sam.

"Maybe... it erupts and they launch themselves back into the atmosphere so that they can return home?"

"No, it's worse that that."

There was roar from one of the Pyrovile. "Whatever you're going to do, do it quickly. They're getting closer."

"Heathens!" they heard the cry, and looked up toward it. Lucius Dextrus was up higher in the cavern. "Defilers! They would desecrate your temple, my lord gods!"

"Come on!" he and Sam ran across the cavern floor.

"We can't go in!" Sam protested.

"We can't go back!" returned the Doctor.

"Crush them! Burn them!"

The Pyrovile moved to accommodate Lucius' wishes, rising up in front of them. From hi pocket, the Doctor produced the water pistol, firing it at the Pyrovile. It gave roar of pain and shied away. With a look at Lucius, Sam and the Doctor kept running.

"There is nowhere to run, Doctor... and Daughter of America."

The Doctor stood in front of the pod. "Now then, Lucius. My lord Pyrovillian... don't get yourselves in a lava." He paused, looking at Sam. "In a lava... no?"

Sam shook her head. "No."

"No. But if I might beg the wisdom of the gods before we perish... once this new race of creatures is complete... then what?"

A Pyrovile walked towards them, crushing boulders in its path.

"My masters will follow the example of Rome itself, an almighty empire, bestriding the whole of civilization."

Sam didn't understand. "But if you've crashed… surely you can fix your ship? You've got all this technology, why not just go home?"

"The heaven of Pyrovillia is gone." Lucius explained.

"What do you mean "gone"? Where's it gone?"

"It was destroyed in a war. Pyrovillia is lost. But there is heat enough in this world for our new species to rise."

"You realise that the planet is 70% water, right?" Sam pointed out. "Why don't you find an uninhabited planet and go there?"

"We are here now, why bother? And as for the other point, water can boil and everything will burn!"

The Doctor put his water pistol away, and Sam could only pick out the signs of his disappointment from his face because she'd known him for so long. "Then the whole planet is at stake. Thank you, that's all I needed to know. Sam!"

He pushed her into the pod and follows, using the sonic screwdriver on the door.

"You have them, my lords," said Lucius.

Inside the ship, Sam was a bit annoyed with the Doctor. "Do you go out of your way to think of more exciting ways to almost kill us? You might actually succeed one day."

"Nah," said the Doctor. "She'll be right."

Sam rolled her eyes. "It's getting petty hot in here."

"See, the energy converted takes the lava, uses the power to create a fusion matrix which wields Pyrovile to human. Now it's complete, they can convert millions."

"So that what those circuit things were for! Can you prevent it with these controls?"

"Course I can, but don't you see?" Sam didn't so she waited for him to continue. "That's why the soothsayers can't see the volcano. There is no volcano. Vesuvius is never going to erupt. The Pyrovile are stealing all its power. They're gonna use it to take over the world."

"But you can fix it."

"Yes. I can avert the system, which will cause the volcano to erupt and blow them up. That's it, Sam. It's a choice between Pompeii and the world."

"Holy Hannah."

"If Pompeii is destroyed, then it's not just history, it's me. I make it happen."

"The Pyrovile are made from rock and lava. An explosion will just generate heat, won't that feed them?"

"Vesuvius explodes with the force of 24 nuclear bombs. Nothing can survive it." He fiddled with the machinery for a few seconds, then looked at Sam. "Certainly not us."

"Never mind us."

The Doctor put his hand on a lever. "Push this lever and it's all over. Twenty thousand people," he was reluctant to pull the lever, unwilling to have so many innocent lives on his hands.

Sam put her hands over his. "I love you," she told him. "You make a brilliant brother. Ted." she smiled at him.

"Love you too, sis," he returned, and they pulled down on the lever.

Mount Vesuvius erupted, sending ash and the pod into the air. Sam and the Doctor were thrown around inside, and miraculously landed, alive. Shakily, they two clambered out of the escape pod. The Doctor looked behind them, seeing the volcano. He grabbed Sam's hand and took off at a run, heading for Caecilius' villa, for the TARDIS.

As they ran through the marketplace, people were beginning to panic, running and screaming as they tried to escape the town. The ash began to fall from the sky, doing nothing to assuage the people's fears.

As they ran, Sam tried to yell instructions to people. "Go to the hills!" she told them. "Get as high up as you can!"

They didn't listen, instead heading for the beach. Sam saw a little boy crying, alone, and reached for him. "Come here, sweetie," she crooned.

"Give him to me!" a woman snatched him away and Sam gasped back tears, knowing that his mother's well meaning actions had condemned him to death.

Gently, the Doctor grasped her hand. "Come on," he said, and they headed back toward the village.

Arriving at the villa, they saw the family huddled together in a corner. "Gods save us, Doctor!" exclaimed Caecilius.

The Doctor stared at them for a long moment. Then he turned and headed for the TARDIS.

"You can't!" Sam was outraged. "You can't leave them."

"I can," retorted the Doctor. "I've done enough here as it is. I just want to leave before anything else goes wrong." He initiated the dematerialisation sequence.

Sam tugged on the lever that forced it to shut down. "No. I pulled that lever too. If we leave now, when we can easily save them, their death is on my hands too, and I won't let you do that to me."

"You're in the military, Sam. You've killed people before."

"And I've killed people with you before too. But never innocents, never civilians. Please."

"Okay. Go get them," the Doctor said, shutting off the engine. "Just them, mind."

Sam grinned widely, and went to the door. "Come with us," she told the family, inviting them inside. The Doctor came to stand beside her, stretching out his hand.

Caecilius stumbled forward to grasp it.

The Doctor, Sam, Caecilius and his family stood on one of the hills with a view of Pompeii, watching a cloud of ash and smoke flow over the town.

"It is never forgotten, Caecilius. Oh time will pass, men will move on, and stories will fade, but one day... Pompeii will be found again... in thousands of years... and everyone will remember you."

"What about you, Evelina? Can you see anything?"

"No, the visions have gone."

The Doctor nodded, expecting this. "The explosion was so powerful, it cracked open a rift in time. Just for a second. That's what gave you the gift of prophecy. It echoed back into the Pyrovillian alternative. But not anymore. You're free."

Metella looked at him. "But tell me... who are you, Doctor... with your words... and your temple containing such size within?"

"Oh, I was never here. We were never here. Don't tell anyone."

"The great go Vulcan must be enraged. It's so volcanic. It's like some sort of... volcano." Caecilius' voice cracked with emotion. "All those people..." he hugged his wife, and Quintus took his sister's hand.

Sam and the Doctor slipped away unnoticed. "Thank you."

"Yeah," he hugged her. "Sick of me yet?"

Sam shook her head. "Nope."

"Good!" grinned the Doctor. "How do you feel about taking a small breather in 1969?" he waved a file that they'd received several months ago in front of her.

She smiled her response.

**SIX MONTHS LATER…**

"Metella, my love, have you seen that clasp? The beetle one. The Egyptians do love a scarab."

Metella entered with the clasp. "Here we are, I was giving it a polish.  Now calm down."

"If I get that contract, for the marble granaries of Alexandria, we'll be rich, you'll see..."

At that moment, Evelina walked by in a short tunic. "Hold on there, Evelina. You are not going out wearing that!"

"Don't start, Dad, it's what all the girls in Rome are wearing." She kissed him. "See you later.

"Are you seeing that boy again?"

Quintus walked by with a pile of scrolls, looking much happier and more together than he had been six months earlier.

"Oh, look at Quintus. My son, the doctor," Metella smiled widely at him, pride shining from her pores.

Quintus protested at the praise. "Mum, I've told you, I'm not a doctor, not yet. I'm just a student of the physical sciences."

"Well, that's a doctor to me," she kissed his forehead. "Give thanks to the household gods before you go. There's a good boy.

While she continued to set Caecilius in order, Quintus walked to the shrine, sprinkling it with water. "Thank you, household gods. Thank you for everything."

She shrine showed Sam and the Doctor in front of the TARDIS. The boy stood up and walked out.

**AN: **This one was very similar to the DW ep, so sorry if I bored anyone. Hope you enjoyed nonetheless. There's a poll about what I should do about Rose in this story on my profile, so go take a vote it you care. This was a long chapter, and slightly boring perhaps. Next chapter will be shorter, but mostly original prose. You might have guessed that it will be based on Blink. So look forward to that!

Once again, I relied heavily on the transcript, from the same place as always. Oh, and for the record, this chapter is dedicated to my reviewers, especially SpaceHead3, acer-sigma, and angry penguin, who have reviewed most, if not all, chapters. You're the reason I keep writing. :)


	7. The Furling Extinction

**Astrophysics in Action**

**Post Doomsday. What if the Doctor had a different companion? Say… Samantha Carter? Crossover with Stargate: SG-1**

**Chapter Six: Blink, or The Furling Extinction**

"You know, Ted," Sam said, glaring as she pulled herself up off the ground and sat back on a crate, "This isn't exactly what I had in mind when you said a trip to 1969. I had images of good music… a few hippies… a bit of rest and relaxation…"

The Doctor frowned at her. "You don't think this is fun?"

"No. It's not." Her glare caused him to wince. "I joined the Air Force, not the Navy."

As if to emphasize her point, the ship lurched violently beneath them as angry waves crashed loudly against the side, sending Sam, the Doctor, and their crates sliding from one end of the cargo hold to the other.

Shuffling his seat so that he was propped up against the wall next to Sam, the Doctor reluctantly nodded. "It's not my favourite method of travel either," he agreed. "But hey, it's an adventure!"

Sam blinked at him. "We've stowed away in the cargo hold of a ship, crossing the Atlantic. Remind me why, again?"

"I blame you," the Doctor responded immediately, as he had many times before. "It's your Grandfather. If this had happened with Rose, we'd never have left England."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Your stepson," she reminded him with practised ease. "Which is just weird, by the way. And if it had happened with Rose, I doubt you'd have been nearly as bored."

"Sam!" the Doctor protested, mortified.

She just stared at him. "Well, it's true, isn't it?"

He didn't respond to that, choosing instead to look at the various shaped crates around them. "Wonder what's in the crates, hey?"

Sam shrugged in response. "I don't know. You know, this would have been much better if you hadn't left your psychic paper in the TARDIS. We wouldn't have had to stowaway like this."

"Stop being so negative," the Doctor admonished. "Two days ago, you were convinced it was an adventure."

Sam huffed, folding her arms across her chest. They'd arrived in 1969 a week earlier, on August 1, and had promptly realised that they had no where to stay, and barely enough money for a few nights in a hotel. On their second night, they'd received a call from Thomas Carter asking them to come and visit him because he had some things for them. Realising that they must have told him to do so, they'd promptly agreed and went to the docks the very next day. That was when they'd discovered that the ship that they were now on would be leaving in a few days, but they wouldn't hire either of them to help out, so now they were both stowed away on a cargo ship, two days into the two week journey. At first Sam had been thrilled with the idea of being a stowaway: as a child, the idea had appealed to her, but now she was realising just how terrible it was. Not only did they have to sneak around in order to get food and use the facilities, but the cargo hold was smelly and the smaller crates were easily jostled around by the storm. Not to mention the mind numbing boredom. She and the Doctor had played just about every road trip game they could think of: I spy (small crate, large crate, you), twenty questions (Wood, plastic, cloth? - Wood - Is it a crate?), Truth or Dare (I dare you to tell me the truth about - that's cheating!) and various others.

Sam looked over at the Doctor, and saw that he had the sonic screwdriver pointed at the screws on one of the crates marked fragile. "Doctor!" she exclaimed, horrified. "You can't just go looking through this stuff!"

"It's giving off funny energy readings, Sam!" he explained, waving the screwdriver and receiving a few bleeps in return.

Sam fought for a moment with herself, then nodded. The curiosity was too much to bear. "Let's get it open."

Moments later, the lid of the crate was lying on the floor, and the Doctor was rummaging around in the box for whatever was hidden inside. He pulled out a small device, no larger than his hand, which was shaped almost like a tear drop and had strange markings on it that neither Sam nor the Doctor could make out without the aid of the TARDIS. There was a large circle near the bottom, a smaller one on top of it, and a line connecting the two of them.

"What is it?" Sam asked, looking to the Doctor.

He examined it for a moment longer, pulling his glasses out of one of his never-ending pockets. "A very old pice of alien technology. Possibly Furling."

Sam was silent for a moment, waiting for the explanation she knew he'd provide in a few seconds. "The Furlings were one of the Great Races more than 50 million years ago. The others were the Asgard, the Nox and the Alterans. They were all extremely technologically advanced. I can't tell you much more than that right now, but the Furlings have been assumed extinct for many thousands of years. At least, no one's had any contact with them in that long. This technology must have been left behind when they visited Earth all that time ago."

"They came to Earth?" Sam said, surprised.

"With all the aliens you've seen on Earth, in various time periods, me for one, this surprises you?"

Sam considered for a moment. "Well, no, not really. I guess not. So what does this device do and why is it here?"

"I'm not sure. Gallifreyans didn't exactly concern themselves with the other races. They were a bit pompous for that. And I haven't had much opportunity on my own… I do think it's a key of some sort, though. As for why it's here, I'd guess that they found it somewhere and it's going to be studied."

"Oh." Sam said. "What's in the rest of these crates, then? Anything else as interesting?"

The Doctor passed the screwdriver over a few more crates, pocketing the key as he did so. "Not in any of these ones. There could be up back, though."

Sam eyed the enormous crates packed at the very bak of the ship. The first night they'd been there, she could have sworn she'd heard noises coming from them, but she had convinced herself that it was just her imagination. "Give me the sonic screwdriver," she demanded, and the Doctor handed it over. She climbed up on the smallest boxes, slowly getting onto the higher ones with the Doctor's help. Then she crawled over to where the largest crates were and pulled the sonic screwdriver from her pocket, and passing it over the boxes. Sure enough, the answering bleep confirmed abnormal energy readings.

"We've got something in here," she called to the Doctor.

"Try and get it open," the Doctor called back so she carefully examined the edges of the crate and shook her head.

"I can't," she yelled to him. "It opens on the side, which is covered up by crates." She scrambled back down, landing on the ground with a soft thump. "Do we really need to open it anyway?"

The Doctor looked contemplative. "I'm not sure. I don't know whether this is part of what's supposed to happen, or not. As far as I know, no Furling technology was ever found on Earth, yet here we are. Still, it's been covered up so I might not have heard about it. Wait! That was your job, right? Trying to get alien technology to work?"

Sam nodded. While she had been officially assigned to the Stargate project, and most of her work had been on that, she'd also been responsible for the investigation of other alien technologies that had crash landed on Earth. "I've never seen anything like this," she said, indicating the key. "But we have no idea what's in the other box."

"We need to have a look," decided the Doctor. "Once we know what's going on, we'll be able to decide if we need to do anything else."

Sam agreed wholeheartedly, but it didn't look like access to the large crate was going to be easy. "Exactly how do you propose we do that? It's not exactly as if we have a forklift handy, is it?"

"Sam, Sam, Sam," sighed the Doctor. "Why would we need a forklift? Forklifts have only been around since the late 1910s, and people were moving large objects long before that. How do you think they built the Stonehenge, or the pyramids? Pulleys and levers and ropes, Sam! They used pulleys and levers and ropes. Sure, it took them an awful long time to go about it, and I'm not sure why the Goa- um, never mind."

Sam eyed him suspiciously. "You know, this is getting to be really irritating. Every time you start talking about something, you stop halfway through and tell me I have to discover it in my own time."

"Well, you do!" the Doctor defended, but seeing that this wasn't working he changed tracks. "And it's not every time, more like… 40% of the time."

"Oh yes, there's a great difference," Sam said. "Anyway, we don't have any pulleys or levers or ropes."

"Pulleys, maybe not. But levers and ropes? You'd be surprised what you can fit in a transdimensional pocket."

Sam glared briefly. "I wouldn't if you'd let me have one of my own." It was an old argument. Every time Sam asked for some kind of alien gadget, whether it be a sonic screwdriver, psychic paper or a transdimensional pocket, the Doctor would resolutely refuse, arguing that she could always borrow his, but Sam wouldn't let up. Right now, she was eyeing him enviously as he prattled on about the history of pulleys, levers and ropes as he emptied his pockets of an insane amount of objects, including several bananas, a flashlight and the 'timey-wimey detector' that he'd been working on for the past few days, with Sam's help. Finally, out came a long, tangled rope, quickly followed by another, just as long and just as tangled.

"I suppose you're going to want me to do the untangling?" she sighed.

The Doctor tossed her one of the ropes. "Just that one. I'll take the other."

After they had untangled the ropes, the Doctor sent Sam back on top f the crates, so that she could fasten the ropes around the back. After she had done this, she hopped back down and they tugged the first of the large crates away. Over the next few hours, they were able to move all the crates away, revealing the final, enormous crate.

"Well, let's open her up," said the Doctor, holding his hand out for the sonic screwdriver.

Sam kept ahold of it and opened the crate herself, grinning inwardly at the look on the Doctor's face. The front of the crate fell away, revealing what looked to be, essentially, an enormous blue egg.

"Ooh!" exclaimed the Doctor, excited as Sam looked on in astonishment. "Well, this is interesting!"

"How so?" asked Sam. "It's an enormous blue egg."

"Well, that's what it looks like, isn't it?" asked the Doctor. "But then, the TARDIS generally looks like a small blue box."

"Are you telling me that it's bigger on the inside?"

The Doctor paused. "Well, no. Not exactly. But is is a spacecraft, of Furling design."

"Aha." Sam agreed mildly, looking at it. "So how do you get in?"

"Oh, you need the key. Without it, you can't even get the door open."

Sam nodded, looking around for a keyhole. "Is it that one you found before?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No, I don't think so. From memory, it's probably a genetic lock, so us trying to get in is pretty pointless. Unfortunately, it also means that anyone else trying to get in is pretty pointless too."

"Why unfortunately?"

The Doctor indicated the ship with one hand. "Well, think about it. There doesn't seem to be any entrance… there doesn't seem to be anything that indicates that it's not an enormous egg, or an enormous boulder. Furling technology is very advanced in the field of illusions: any X-rays or MRIs or other ways of determining what it was would simply show that it's as it appears. If they believed that, they would have put it in a museum, published an article, or even tried to make a gigantic omelette. But they haven't, which indicates that they know what it is. Which means there's a Furling hanging around somewhere, probably being held captive. And that, Samantha Jean, is not a good thing. Especially not if they've hurt it an any way, which is more than likely, considering this whole situation."

Sam was reeling from this speech. "You mean to say that there's a Furling somewhere on this ship?"

The Doctor nodded. "It's probable. Without a Furling, they'd have no hope of getting the ship open, and if they know what it is, they know that much. Therefore, they'd probably want to keep the two together."

"Okay, so what now?"

"We find the Furlings, of course!" exclaimed the Doctor.

Sam could hardly suppress her grin at this impromptu adventure. It was about time something interesting happened in 1969.

After carefully placing the lid back on the crate and putting a few of the smaller boxes back in front of it, Sam and the Doctor waited until nightfall and sneaked out of the cargo hold, and up into the main ship. Searching several cabins, they found nothing unusual: a few sailors drinking gambling, or sleeping. Soon, however, they hit the jackpot. One of the cabins near the Captain's was locked, but a quick buzz of the sonic screwdriver quickly fixed that.

Gently, so as not to alert any occupants of the cabin to their presence, Sam pushed the door open. After a few seconds of silence, it became apparent that there wasn't anyone in the room, so Sam inched the door open a slight more, and slipped in, followed by the Doctor.

The Doctor pulled the door shut rather abruptly, rendering Sam's previous stealth completely pointless, but instead of getting annoyed with him about it, Sam rolled her eyes. While she'd been travelling with the Doctor, much of her military training had come in useful. Still, a lot of it had to be completely disregarded, or was pointless anyway, or the Doctor didn't approve. When Sam had suggested carrying around a gun, the look on the Doctor' face had said enough, but apparently he'd thought not, and seen fit to regale her with a whole spiel on how terrible guns were. Sam had silently resisted the urge to correct him and point out when he was being a hypocrite, ironically, thanks to her military background in etiquette. Even though it wasn't official, when they were doing this sort of thing, Sam privately thought of him as her commanding officer, for most the part, not that she'd ever let him know. Still, that didn't mean she was unwilling to question his ideas: she was far more comfortable with questioning him that she would be allowed if he really had been her CO.

As she found the light switch, she pulled herself out of her musings, taking a moment to look around the room properly. It seemed to be some kind of medical facility, with various pieces of 1969 state of the art medical equipment filling the white room, and three hospital beds with various attached monitors in the middle of the room. The Doctor approached one of the beds, and sighed. "Definitely a Furling," he confirmed, and Sam came over to have a good look at this previously unknown species of alien.

Her first reaction was that it was the strangest creature she had ever seen. Completely covered in hair, it had a vague resemblance to Bigfoot, except she was sure that Bigfoot was supposed to have a nose and a mouth, not a black beak like a hawk. It's fur was dark brown at the roots, lightened to almost golden in colour at the ends. The Furling's eyes, large and round, were closed, covered by hard black shell eyelids.

The Doctor pulled the sheet down, revealing the rest of the alien body. It was incredibly tall, Sam would have guessed about 7 feet. Long, thick, fur-covered legs extended at least two thirds of the way up its body, and shorter arms seemed to protrude from almost the same joint, ending in hands with seven long and spindly hairless digits. It had no neck, instead, all it's facial features were located somewhere near the top of its torso. The Doctor was feeling along both the legs, and after a moment, pulled his hands back, a relieved sigh escaping.

"It's alive. Both hearts are working, but they are a little erratic."

"Wait, they have a binary circulatory system too? And were you feeling in their legs?"

The Doctor nodded. "Binary circulation isn't all that uncommon. Even so, the Furlings do have an unusual makeup - the galaxy that originate in was, well, very strange, and very cold. Hence the fur. But they keep most of their internal organs in their legs. We're not really sure why, it seems a bit counterproductive to survival. Anyway, yes. Will you check on the other one for me? You should get about 40 beats per minute."

Sam moved to the leftmost bed while the Doctor went to the right. The Furling she was looking at was significantly smaller than the other, and if she had to guess, she would say it was a child or adolescent. She did as the Doctor had done, finding a pulse and measuring the heart rate. "Seems about right," she announced. "Skipped once or twice, but otherwise steady."

The Doctor looked grim. "That's better than either of these two. This one is extremely irregular."

"What are they doing to them?" Sam asked.

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't really know-," whatever else he had been going to say was cut off as he pulled her into a storage cupboard, hearing voices approach.

"Who's in here?" called an unknown voice. "This area is off limits to unauthorised personnel!"

Neither Sam nor the Doctor responded, waiting with baited breath. Eventually, the unknown person gave up and they were left in silence again. However, before they could emerge from the closet, two other people entered the room, talking between them.

"Give them another 0.5 mg of epi," one of them commented.

The other seemed sceptical. "They've already had more than three times a lethal dose."

"And they're still not awake. They're not human, Pat," the first returned dismissively. "I'm the doctor. You're just a nurse. Do as I say. Now."

"Yessir." Pat said sulkily.

Sam tugged on the Doctor's sleeve, looking at him significantly, but her shook his head and held a hand over her mouth. A minute later, and they were left alone again. They waited a few seconds before getting back out of the cupboard.

Quickly, they checked the Furlings vitals again. Their heart rates were fast, much faster than they had been before, and even more erratic. Suddenly, it seemed like they were waking up.

The Doctor spent several minutes consoling them and explaining what had happened before the Furlings themselves actually spoke. They were a family, they'd crash landed their ship on Earth several thousand years before and the safety protocols had automatically kicked in, putting their bodies into stasis and sending out a message to and Furling ships who could hear. Unfortunately, none had, and they had gone extinct at around the same time. Their ship had been recovered just a few months ago and the disturbance had caused the stasis pods to waken them. They'd emerged, and been captured. Ever since, they'd been experimented on.

"I will not last much longer, I am afraid," the father said. "I feel myself growing weak."

"Ahavos!" his wife protested weakly. "Do not speak like this."

"It is true, Ioava," the Furling told her. "Please, do what you can to save my wife and daughter, Doctor."

"I promise," said the Doctor. "But I'll try to save you too,"

The child, Nihnys was in the best health of all the Furlings, and Sam was able to quickly help her up, but the parents were another story. Eventually, Sam the the Doctor were able to support them to standing, and the group of five hurried toward the exit, careful not to be caught. In a few surprisingly eventless minutes, they were back in the cargo hold, and inside the container that held the Furling ship.

"That was too easy," Sam muttered to the Doctor, worried, as Ahavos placed his hand on the ship and it popped open.

The Doctor shrugged. "It doesn't always have to be difficult," he rationalised, but their record so far indicated otherwise. The five clambered inside: it was a tight fit in a vehicle really only meant for the three Furlings, but they managed it anyway, and Ahavos managed to activate the teleportation device, before following his wife's example and collapsing into a coma. The strain of all the foreign drugs on their bodies was just too much. Worriedly, the Doctor attempted to rouse them, but was unsuccessful.

While he attempted to do what he could for the adult Furlings, Sam spoke with the younger Furling, who was faring much better than her parents, but couldn't exactly be described as healthy. "So Nihnys, how did you end up here anyway?" Sam asked, curious.

"We were travelling to Elysium." Nihnys rasped. "Our people hoped to establish a peaceful colony, and we had received an invitation. However, our engines failed and we had to activate the short range teleportation device to allow us to land on this planet."

Sam nodded in comprehension. "So the teleportation device is only short range?"

"Yes, for interstellar travel we developed hyperspace capable ships, but though they were rather difficult to control." Nihnys seemed to smile a bit sadly at this. "I was studying to become an engineer."

Sam was about to respond, but the Doctor pulled her aside. "What have I told you? No studying advanced technologies. Anyway, we have bigger problems. Ahavos and Ioava are dead, and if we can't get any help soon, I don't think that Nihnys is far off. We've arrived in New York, about four miles from Thom's place. I don't know enough about Furling technology to take us the rest of the way, but we can't just leave it here for anyone to find while we go fetch Thom."

"Maybe Nihnys knows?" Sam suggested, glancing over her shoulder at the young Furling. "She said she was studying engineering."

The Doctor grimaced. "Looks like it's our only option."

A few minutes later, Nihnys had explained how to use and they had teleported into Thom's basement.

"Thom!" exclaimed the Doctor, emerging into the kitchen from the basement with Sam in tow. Thom was preparing a plate of biscuits and tea. "How are you old friend?" he embraced the 62 year old.

"I'm very well, Dad - err, Ted… Doctor. Sorry. It's just strange, you and Sam look exactly the same, and look at me, I've gotten old!" he indicated some wrinkles on his face, and Sam laughed, drawing her unwitting grandfather into a hug, which he gladly returned.

"I got a parcel from you about a week ago. It said to contact you immediately, and gave me the number of that motel." He rummaged in one of the kitchen draws, filled with various pieces of correspondence: bills, cards and letters. Eventually, he pulled out a small parcel wrapped in butchers paper. "It said to give this to you when you arrived."

The Doctor took the parcel, handing it off to Sam while he got more details from Thom. Inside the parcel was the psychic paper and two cheque books, in the names of Theodore and Samantha Carter, from the Governor and Company of the Bank of England(1). She showed the Doctor, and nodded, taking the psychic paper and one of the cheque books and shoving them into one of his seemingly bottomless pockets. She pushed hers into the pocket of her leather jacket, and refocused her attention on the conversation between Ted and the Doctor.

"Listen, Gr-Thom," she corrected herself. "Do you have any medical supplies here?"

"Medical supplies?" Thom asked worriedly, looking them both over. "What's wrong with you?"

"It's not us," Sam frowned. "I think you'd better take a look,"

They led him down into the basement, showing him Nihnys and her parents, and quickly explaining the situation. "We can't go to a doctor's, or the hospital." Sam explained the circumstances. "But maybe we an save her anyway.

"Sam," said the Doctor gently, "there's not much more we can do for her. I don't think I could save her even if I had the TARDIS, at this point."

Nihnys didn't look good: she was unmoving on in her seat, her head lolled to one side, beak hanging open. Her breathing was raspy and she seemed to be barely conscious and in lots of pain.

"Well, maybe we can't save her," Sam protested. "But we can make it easier, more comfortable. Surely there are some painkillers around here?"

"I've got some aspirin in the bathroom cupboard," he allowed.

Sam looked at the Doctor, who frowned. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea. Aspirin is pretty deadly for most non-human species."

"Anything else, then?" Sam asked with a shrug.

Thom flushed pink. "Well, uh, I can get some stronger stuff if you give me a minute or two."

"Stronger stuff?" Sam repeated, curious.

Thom coughed. "It's not exactly legal."

Sam blinked at him, shocked. The Doctor did much the same.

"Oh, come on! They sell prescription painkillers as well, even if you don't have a prescription." Thom protested. "And it's not as if I ever buy from them for myself. I just know where to get it, it's not like they try and hide it exactly."

"Okay, so you go get that," said the Doctor, but Thom interrupted.

"I can't. I'm expecting my son, Jacob, here soon. He's bringing my grandson and my new granddaughter. Actually, her name is Samantha, too," Thom noted absently, not making the connection. "It would be a bit strange if two strangers answered the door to him."

They both turned to Sam, and she groaned. It was going to have to be her.

"I got some oxycodone and some paregoric," Sam announced upon her return to the basement, quickly divesting herself of the scarf and hat which she'd been supplied with so that she'd look 'less suspicious'.

The drugs were administered in short order, and in under half an hour, they could see that Nihnys, while still physically on the brink of death, was at least slightly more comfortable. While Thom and the Doctor had gone upstairs to greet Thom's family, the Doctor had insisted that Sam stay behind in the basement and watch over Nihnys as her life slipped slowly away.

"Samantha," Nihnys managed, in a rare moment of conciousness before she finally slipped away. "Thank you… for trying,"

Sam's heart clenched painfully and tears sprang to her eyes as she mentally berated herself for being so useless. For this adventure having started out so easily, it was turning out to be one of the more difficult she'd ever had. Before her very eyes, a species became extinct while upstairs her 'brother' made friends with her unwitting family, who, in her time, hadn't spoken to her in ages because of petty arguments. It just didn't seem fair.

Once Jacob had left, taking his family with him, Thom and the Doctor descended back into the basement, and found Sam fast asleep in the chair next to the bed they'd laid Nihnys in, tear marks dried on her face. The alien was dead, just like her parents. Solemnly, the Doctor woke Sam and got her to get back inside the Furling vehicle, telling Thom that they'd be back to collect the bodies and lay them properly to rest when they had the TARDIS back.

Their short adventure put a damper on the mood for the rest of Sam and the Doctor's time in 1969, the horror of the experience lingering in their mind, even as they recorded the video for Sally, as they gave Billy instructions, and even as they left.

Once the TARDIS returned, they went back to Thom's house and took the Furling bodies to their home planet.

"Ted," Sam addressed the Doctor, leaning into his side as they stood over the grave. "Can we please go visit my family?"

The Doctor nodded soberly in response.

**A/N: **Hey all. First thing you should know about this chapter is that the Furlings and their technology are from the Stargate universe, and on that note, this does sort of tie in with the season six episode 'Paradise Lost'. Very, very loosely. Still, what they look like came from my brain alone. If the description didn't really do it for you, imagine a Furby with really long legs and arms. And no fear! This chapter, and probably the next few, will be hard times for our heroes, but they will overcome it!

Sorry that this chapter was so late, real life decided to assert itself. I'm not happy at all with this chapter, it didn't turn out at all like I expected, but hopefully there's something there to redeem it. Next chapter we're back to the old formula of an episode with a few changes. I'm sure you'll like it, I've been looking forward to writing it for a while.

The poll is still up on my profile, but I'll be taking it down after I put the next chapter up, so make sure you get your vote if you want to.

As is, I hoped you liked it anyway. Let me know, and, as always, concrit is welcomed.

(1) As far as I could tell, this was the full title of the Bank of England in 1969, forgive me if I'm wrong.


	8. Utopia

**Astrophysics in Action**

**Post Doomsday. What if the Doctor had a different companion? Say… Samantha Carter? Crossover with Stargate: SG-1**

**Chapter Eight: Utopia**

It had been two months since the incident with the Furling in 1969. Sam had been home once to visit her father and brother, only for the whole thing to erupt in an argument when Jacob decided to interrogate Sam about her travels with the Doctor and her abandonment of the Air Force, never mind that she'd put in for the leave that she was taking. General Jacob Carter was unhappy with his daughter's attitude and insisted that she stop her sulking. When she'd tried to talk to Mark, she'd not had much more luck: he'd told her it was her fault for joining the air force in the first place, and to keep him and his family out of whatever it was she'd got mixed up in now.

Still, she'd had some time (in between adventures, of course) to think about it and decided that enough was enough: She was going to make amends and she was going to make them today. Even if it did mean she'd have to back down on some things. Her adventures with the Doctor, seeing all the despair that was out there, but even more importantly seeing all the joy had made her feel desperate for a sense of belonging in her own family, like she hadn't felt since before her mother's death.

"I have to try once more," Sam explained to the Doctor earnestly. "You know you're like a brother to me, but it's not quite the same."

"No need to explain," said the Doctor, punching in co-ordinates. "We just have to stop off in Cardiff first, if that's alright?"

Sam nodded, "Why?"

"Refuel," said the Doctor.

Sam raised a brow. "You can get TARDIS fuel in Cardiff?"

"Well, she doesn't take the regular stuff, you see," smiled the Doctor. "And he thing about Cardiff is that it's built on a rift in time and space-just like California and the San Andreas Fault. The rift bleeds energy. Every now and then I need to open up the engines, soak up the energy and use it as fuel."

"Why not go to California, then?" Sam suggested reasonably. "It is closer to our final destination."

"Cardiff's more powerful - it's quicker," the Doctor explained as he landed. "It should only take a few seconds."

Leaning up against a wall of the TARDIS with his back to the monitor, the Doctor sighed. "The last time I was here I was with Rose."

Frankly, Sam was beginning to wonder if the Doctor was ever going to stop moping about Rose. What he needed, she mused, was a good hard whack of reality. Something that would really help him move on. Oh, he'd improved in the year or so she'd known him, but God! Every time they went somewhere he'd also been with Rose, he went on about it. Still, she chastised herself mentally, he was allowed to grieve and it was only healthy, she supposed.

She just wished there was something she could do to help.

She was brought out of her musings by the Doctor's declaration that they were done.

As the TARDIS began the familiar start-up sequence, the console sparked and Sam and the Doctor were thrown to the floor.

"What the hell was that?" Sam exclaimed, clinging to the console.

The Doctor shook his head, confused. "We're accelerating? Into the future! The year one billion. Five billion. Five trillion. 50 trillion. What? The year 100 trillion. That's impossible!"

Sam was almost afraid to ask. "Why? What happens then?"

"We're going to the end of the universe."

Yep. She knew she should have kept her mouth shut.

The TARDIS landed with a gentle thud and Sam and the Doctor looked at each other in query. "So what's out there?" Sam asked brightly.

The Doctor gave a shrug as a response. "I don't know."

Sam waited for him to elaborate.

"Not even the Time Lords came this far. We should leave. We should go. We should really, really…go." But both of them, being scientists, could not resist the lure or the unknown and with wide grins, they headed for the door.

Outside, the landscape was bleak: darkness as far as their eyes could see, few plants and mostly dirt. Lying on the floor next to the TARDIS, apparently passed out, was a man in 1940's British military style clothes.

"Oh My God!" Sam said, running over to the man and feeling for pulse.

The Doctor sauntered over while Sam began CPR. "Don't, that'll just hurt him. Or inflate his head if he thinks you're kissing him. And trust me, he will."

Sam looked at him, stopping in the middle of a compression, confused. "You know him?"

"I think he came with us," the Doctor agreed.

"What do you mean? From Earth?"

The Doctor nodded. "Well, yes. He must have been clinging to the outside of the TARDIS all the way through the vortex. That's very him. He used to travel with me, back in the old days."

"Well, you've never mentioned him," Sam told him reproachfully. "Well, at least, I don't think so. Who is he?"

At that very moment,the body gasped desperately for air as it was reanimated. Hands clenched reflexively at Sam's jacket.

Sam gave a short squeak of surprise, before exhaling and letting her scientific mind take over. "How did you do that? He was dead, I'm sure of it," she said to the Doctor.

The man on the floor turned to regard the Doctor briefly. "Got yourself a scientist, eh, Doc?" turning to Sam, he gave a winning smile and stuck out his hand. "Captain Jack Harkness. And you are?"

"Captain Samantha Carter, USAF." Sam replied.

"Guess that makes me your superior. RAF." Jack told her. A Captain in the RAF was approximately equivalent to a Colonel in the USAF.

"But you're American!" Sam protested.

Jack shrugged. "Your point? And Doc, Samantha Carter? Thought that was against the rules." Jack stood to face the Doctor, and the two stared at each other coldly for a moment.

"Good to see you," Jack started.

"And you." Agreed the Doctor. "Same as ever… although… have you had work done?"

"You can talk!"

The Doctor started. "Oh yes, the face. Regeneration. How did you know this was me?"

"The police box kinda gives it away. I've been following you for a long time. You abandoned me." He tried to hide it, but the hurt was obvious in his face. Sam wondered what had happened for this to occur.

"Did I? Busy life. Move on."

Jack looked to the side, before looking back and changing the topic. "So where's Rose? Is she…"

"Oh, no. She's alive! In a parallel world, safe and sound. And Mickey! And her mother!"

"Oh yes!" Jack grinned. "And now you're gallivanting around the universe with the original universe-gallivanter."

Sam frowned at this, but wasn't given too much time to think on if before the two men embraced with a laugh.

* * *

The three of them were now walking around the unknown planet, looking for some signs of civilisation and Jack was storytelling. "So there I was, stranded in the year 200,100, ankle-deep in Dalek dust, and he goes off without me. But I had this. I used to be a Time Agent. It's called a vortex manipulator. " He tapped his wrist and Sam looked at it, intensely curious.

"Can I?" but, hearing this, the Doctor frowned at her.

"You know the rules Sam,"

Jack continued with his story. "He's not the only one who can time travel."

The Doctor interrupted again. "Oh, excuse me. That is not time travel. It's like I've got a sports car and you've got a space hopper."

Sam laughed.

"All right, so I bounced. I thought '21st century, best place to find the Doctor' except that I got it a little wrong. I arrived in 1869 and this thing burnt out so it was useless. I had to live through the entire 20th century waiting for a version of you that would coincide with me. Well, almost the whole 20th century, anyway. I didn't expect to see you in 1996."

"That makes you more than 127 years old."

"And looking good for it too, don't you think? So I went to the time rift, based myself thing 'cause I knew you'd come back to refuel. Until finally I get a signal on this detecting you and here we are."

"But why did you leave him behind, Ted?"

"Ted!" Jack exclaimed with a laugh as the Doctor muttered that he had been busy. "That's a good one."

In response, Sam began telling him about the incident in 1913.

Soon, they came upon a canyon that appeared to have been a city at some point.

"A city or a hive. Or a nest. Or a conglomeration. Looks like it was grown. But look there. That's like pathways, roads…Must have been some sort of life. Long ago."

"How'd it die?" Sam asked.

"Time. It lived to death. Just time. Everything's dying now. All the great civilizations have gone. This isn't just night. All the stars have burned up and faded away into nothing."

Sam swallowed heavily at the thought. "It must have an atmospheric shell. We should be frozen to death."

"Well, you and I, yes. Jack I'm not so sure."

"Are there any people left alive?" Jack asked, changing the topic.

The Doctor looked pensive for a moment. "I suppose we have to hope. Life will find a way."

Seeing a man dressed in ragged clothes running from hominoid creatures, Sam pointed. "Well, he seems to be doing alright."

"Is it just me, or does that look like a hunt? Come on!"

They immediately took off after the man, Jack laughing with joy as he realised what he'd been missing. They reached hte man, and jack grabbed ahold of him. "I've got you," he soothed.

"We gotta run!" the man screamed. "They're coming, the Futurekind, they're coming!"

Jack passed the man off to the Doctor, and pulled out his revolver, aiming it at the Futurekind.

"Jack, don't you dare!"

Jack fired into the air and the Futurekind stopped.

The Doctor looked about for a way back to the TARDIS, but there were too many of the Futurekind coming from that direction. They'd never make it. The man, who introduced himself as Padraf, told them about the silo, and lead them to it.

Arriving at the gate of the silo, they were forced to show their teeth to prove that they weren't Futurekind. They were declared human and allowed entry, the gates closing behind them as the Guards fired at the monstrous creatures.

"Go back to where you came from. I said go back! Go back!" one guard cried, aiming his gun.

"Oh, don't tell him to put his gun down," Jack muttered under his breath.

The Doctor glared. "He's not my responsibility."

"And I am?" Jack scoffed. "That makes a change."

The Doctor didn't comment, instead, tuning to the guard. "Thanks for that."

"Right," said the guard roughly. "Let's get you inside."

Padra pushed to the front of the group. "My name is Padrafet Shafekane. Please tell me, can you take me to Utopia?"

"Oh yes, sir. Yes, I can." The guard led them into a large tunnel carved into a mountain, the silo.

After the Doctor had extracted a promise from one of the Lieutenants that they would try and find the TARDIS when they went to collect water, they wandered around looking for Padra's family.

"It's like an enormous refugee camp," Sam said.

"Stinking," Jack agreed as he passed a large man, who stared at him for the comment. "Oh, sorry. No offence."

The Doctor, as usual, was going on about how amazing humans were. "Don't you see that? The ripe old smell of humans. You survived. Oh, much better than a million years evolving into clouds of gas. And then another million as downloads, but you always revert tp the same basic shape. The fundamental humans. End of the universe and here you are. Indomitable! That's the word! Indomitable! Ha!"

His spiel was interrupted when Padra was reunited with his mother and brother.

At this point, Sam, Jack and the Doctor set off on their own, and soon enough they came across a locked door that the Doctor was unable to leave alone. While he used his sonic screwdriver, Sam fiddled with the keypad, and soon enough the door was open.

"Whoa. Big rocket," Jack exclaimed.

"They're not refugees. They're passengers."

"Well, he did say they were going to Utopia."

"The perfect place. 100 trillion years, it's still the same old dream. Do you recognize those engines?"

"Nope," Sam and Jack said simultaneously. "They don't look at all like the ones I'm used to dealing with," Sam continued.

"Whatever it is, it's not rocket science. But it's hot, though." Jack concurred.

They stepped back from the room. "Boiling." Jack closed the door.

"So if the universe is falling apart, what does Utopia man? Where is it?"

Before anyone could answer Sam's question, an elderly man ran up to them and looked between the Doctor and Jack.

"Doctor?" he asked Jack.

The Doctor raised a hand. "That would be me."

"Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good" the man took the Doctor's hand and began to lead him away.

"It's good, apparently," said the Doctor, indicating for Sam and Jack to follow.

They were greeted by an alien known as Chantho, who began every sentence with the start of her name and ended with the end. While Jack chatted amicably with Chantho, Sam and the Doctor listened intently as Yana explained the rocket.

Soon enough, Sam was getting a bit lost, and the Doctor shooed her away from the advanced technology as Yana concluded his speech. "…without a stable footprint we'll never achieve escape velocity. If only we could harmonize the five impact patterns and unify them, well, we might yet make it. What do you think, Doctor? Any ideas?"

"Well, um, basically…sort of…not a clue."

"Nothing?"

"I'm not from around these parts. I've never seen a system like it. Sorry." The Doctor shrugged apologetically and Sam huffed in exasperation. If he didn't even know anything about it, what would be the harm in her looking?

In retaliation, she turned her full attention to Jack, pretending to ignore the conversation between Yana and the Doctor.

Jack was pulling from a satchel a large bleeping device, with wires sticking out all over the place. "What is it?" Sam asked, genuinely curious.

"I said I had a Doctor detector," Jack explained.

There were odd bits of cloth, what looked like hair, and part of a rotting celery stick stuck in various places on the device. "What's all this then?" Sam indicated a short piece of wool.

"They all used to belong to the Doctor, in his various incarnations," Jack explained. "Or at least, as far as I could figure. He's sort of imprinted on them. That's not a very good explanation, mind, but I'm no scientist."

"Imprinted? What do you mean by that?" Sam frowned in consternation.

Jack shrugged.

"Oh, my soul sort of rubbed off on them," the Doctor jumped in. "Not the most effective way of finding someone, but inventive nonetheless. Would have been better if you'd had my hand, oh never mind, that hasn't happened yet for you, had it?"

Sam had, of course, heard the story about the Christmas invasion, so she understood the reference, but Jack looked confused, and decided to ignore the last sentence and worry about it later. "Well, apparently you rub off on people too," Jack grumbled in response to the rest of it.

"Chan, is this normal among your people, tho? Chan, this 'rubbing off', tho?"

Jack shrugged. "Sort of. But his people are different from ours,"

"Might I ask what species are you?" Yana asked the Doctor.

"Time Lord. Last of. Heard of them? Legend or anything? Not even a myth? Blimey, end of the universe is a bit humbling."

"Chan, it is said that I am the last of my species too, tho."

"Sorry," Jack said in absence of a response from the Doctor.

"Chan, most grateful, tho."

Sensing that they were getting a little off topic, Sam redirected conversation back to why they were here. "So what is Utopia?"

"Oh, every human knows of Utopia. Where have you been?"

"I'm a bit of a hermit," the Doctor explained.

"A hermit with friends?"

"Hermits United. Well him anyway, she's my sister." he realised almost immediately it had been the wrong thing to say, but months of habit had overruled his better judgement. "But yes, Hermit's United. We meet up every ten years. Swap stories about caves. It's good fun…for a hermit."

"You are a different species than your sister?"

"Half sister," retorted the Doctor. "So, um, Utopia?"

Yana crooked his finger and lean them to a computer, which was displaying a navigational chart with a blinking red dot.

"The call came across the stars over and over again. Come to Utopia. Originated from that point."

"Where is that?"

"Oh, it's far beyond the Condensate Wilderness. Out towards the wild lands and the dark matter reefs. Calling us in. The last of the humans. Scattered across the night."

Sam was curious about the existence of such a place. "What do you hoe to find there?"

Yana shrugged, looking incredibly hopeful in that moment. "I don't know. A colony, a city, some sort of haven? The Science Foundation created the Utopia Project thousands of years ago to preserve mankind—to find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself. Now perhaps they found it. Perhaps not. But it's worth a look, don't you think?"

"Definitely," agreed Sam.

"Oh yes," said the Doctor. "And the signal keeps modulating, so it's not automatic. There's a good sign. Someone's out there. And that's…ooh, that's a navigation matrix, isn't it? So you can fly without stars to guide you."

The Doctor noticed that Yana seemed distracted, and was looking far into the distance. "Professor? Professor?"

Yana shook himself back to the present. "I—Right, that's enough talk. There's work to do. Now if you could leave. Thank you."

"Are you all right?"

"Yes!" Yana protested, suddenly irritated. "I'm fine. And busy."

"Except that rocket's not going to fly, is it? This footprint mechanism thing, it's not working." Sam interjected.

"We'll find a way!"

The Doctor shook his head. "You're stuck on this planet. And you haven't told them, have you? That lot out there, they still think they're gonna fly."

"Well, it's better to let them live in hope."

"Quite right, too. And I must say, Professor Yana. This new science is well beyond me, but all the same, a boost reversal circuit, in any time frame, must be a circuit which reverses the boost. So, I wonder, what would happen if I did this?" he picked up the circuit and used the sonic screwdriver on it before he switched it on and the device powered up.

"Chan, it's working, tho!"

"But how did you do that?"

"Oh, we've been chatting away. I forgot to tell you, I'm brilliant." Sam and Jack looked at each other and rolled their eyes at his arrogance.

* * *

While Jack and the Doctor stayed with Yana, Sam and Chantho had been send to get some circuit boards. Spotting a young boy who had earlier helped them search for Padra's family, Sam was hit by an overwhelming maternal instinct toward him. "Hey, Creet, right?" she bent down to his height, and he nodded.

"That's right, miss."

"Who are you with, Creet? Have you got family here?"

The boy shook his head. "No, miss, it's just me now."

Sam frowned in concern. "Will you be alright?"

"Yes, miss, I'll be fine. It's going to be great in Utopia. My mum used to say that the skies there are made of diamonds,"

The boy's face shone with such enthusiasm that she couldn't bring herself to let the boy down by telling him what the skies really were made of. "That's lovely," she smiled instead. "Go on, off you go then. Get your seat, you wouldn't want to miss out."

Creet grinned at her before hurrying off.

* * *

The Doctor was marvelling over Yana's ingenuity when it came to making the rocket. "If you had been born in a different time, you'd be revered." he exclaimed, and at Yana chuckled, turned serious. "I mean it. Throughout the galaxies.

"Oh, those damned galaxies. They had to go and collapse. Some admiration would have been nice. Just a little. Just once." Yana joked.

"Well you've got it now. But that footprint engine thing. You can't activate it from onboard. It's gotta be from here. You're staying behind." The Doctor explained.

"With Chantho," Yana seemed resigned to his fate. "She won't leave without me. Simply refuses."

The Doctor sighed. "You would give your life so they could fly."

Yana looked away. "Oh, I think I'm a little to old for Utopia. Time I had some sleep."

At that moment, an annoucement came over the PA system. "Professor, tell the Doctor we've found his blue box."

At this news, the Doctor grinned, delighted. "Ah!"

"Doctor," Jack called, and both the Doctor and Yana came over and joined Jack by the monitor, which showed the TARDIS safely inside the silo.

"Professor, it's a wild stab in the dark, but I may just have found you a way out." He headed into the TARDIS.

Neither he nor Jack noticed Yana's disorientation on seeing the TARDIS.

The Doctor re-emerged from the TARDIS with a long power line. "Extra power," he said as he inserted it into the outlet. "Little bit of a cheat, but who's counting? Jack, you're in charge of the retro-feeds."

Sam and Chantho returned, and on seeing the TARDIS, Sam exclaimed in joy, having to restrain herself from going and hugging it. "I am so glad it's okay!"

Chantho, on the other hand, was only concerned for Yana, going over to the seated Professor, looking extremely worried. "Chan, Professor, are you alright, tho?"

"Yes. I'm fine. I'm fine," he consoled. "I'm fine. Just get on with it."

"Sam, could you connect those circuits into…" he trailed off as he realised that Sam was already doing what he wanted her to, and shook his head, frowning to himself. "Right. Samantha Carter," he muttered under his breath.

Finally noticing that Yana was looking a bit under the weather, the Doctor went over to him.

"You don't have to keep working. We can handle it."

"It's just a headache. Just—Just noise inside my head, Doctor. Constant noise inside my head."

"What sort of noise?"

"It's the sound of drums. More and more as though it's getting closer."

"When did it start?"

"Oh, I've had it all my life." Yana dismissed. "Every waking hour. Still, no rest for the wicked." he stood and went back to work.

* * *

As Sam worked on the circuits, Chantho assisted her. "How long have you been with the professor?" Sam enquired gently.

"Chan, seventeen years, tho."

"Wow." Sam blinked. "That's a long time."

"Chan, I adore him, tho." And she did, Sam could hear it in her voice.

"Oh, and he?" she trailed off, letting it come out as a question.

Chantho looked down. "Chan, I don't think he even notices, tho."

"Oh," Sam said. "I can't imagine…"

Chantho shrugged in concession. "Chan, but I am happy to serve, tho."

"I'm sorry, but may I ask, do you have to start every sentence with chan and end it with tho?"

"Chan, yes, tho."

"Why?"

"Chan, it is polite, tho,"

Sam was mortified. "Should I be doing the same?"

"Chan, it is not necessary, tho. Chan, thank you anyway, tho."

Sam smiled. "That's alright."

"…God sakes! This equipment! Needs rebooting all the time!" Yana exclaimed as he lost his connection on the communications device.

Standing up, Sam came over. "Anything I can do? I've finished with the capacitors."

"Yes, if you could," Yana said gratefully. "Just press reboot every time the picture goes out."

"Sure," Sam agreed, doing as he told her but mentally going over the problem in her head. She ducked behind to look at where the screen was connected, and frowned. No more than ten minutes later, she stood back, having fixed the monitor. Unfortunately, now no one actually needed the screen and Sam had missed a lot of action.

She got a quick rundown from Chantho.

The levels of radiation in the control room had risen to unbearable levels, so Jack had overridden the vents to stop the chamber from flooding. In doing so, he had apparently died, only to come back to life not even a minute later, only to rush off to the irradiated room with the Doctor and was now inside the room, astonishingly still alive, making final preparations for the rocket. He and the Doctor were talking.

"That's why I left you behind. It's not easy even just…just looking at you Jack, 'cause you're wrong." The Doctor was saying, and Sam struggled to comprehend this.

"Thanks," Jack quipped sarcastically.

"You are, I can't help it. I'm a Time Lord. It's instinct. It's in my guts. You're a fixed point in time a space. You're a fact. That's never meant to happen. Even the TARDIS reacted against you, tried to shake you off. Flew all the way to the end of the universe just to get rid of you."

"So what you're saying is that you're, uh, prejudiced?" Jack asked, tightening something.

"I never thought of it like that." A sick feeling was settling in Sam's gut. All this time with the Doctor, they'd been calling each other siblings, she thought they'd told each other everything. Yet, he'd never mentioned Jack, and it seemed that he'd never mentioned him because of a prejudice. What did that say about him? Chantho, seeming to sense her sudden discomfort, put a hand on her shoulder. Yana continued to stare, almost transfixed, at the TARDIS.

"Yeah."

Jack and the Doctor continued to discuss their past for a while, and it became apparent that Jack was immortal, and had travelled with Rose and the Doctor for some period. Neither Sam nor Chantho noticed Yana's strange preoccupation every time the Doctor mentioned anything distinctly Time Lord in nature.

"This new regeneration, it's kinda cheeky," Jack was saying.

"Hmm."The Doctor neither agreed nor disagreed.

"Chan, what is regeneration, tho?"

"I wouldn't worry about trying to understand half the things he says," Sam smiled without giving an explanation, turning to face Chantho, and seeing Yana's disorientation. "Are you alright?"

"Chan, what is it, Professor, tho?"

"Time travel," Yana said. "They say there was time travel back in the old days. I never believed. But what would I know? I'm just a stupid old man. Never could keep time. Always late, always lost. Even this thing never worked." He pulled out a fobwatch from his waistcoat pocket, shaking it and sighing. "Time and time again, always running out on me."

"May I see?" Sam requested, recalling when the Doctor had turned himself into a human.

"Oh, it's only an old relic. Like me," he laughed.

Sam gave a polite chuckle. "So where did you get it?" she asked, attempting a casual tone.

"Hm? I was found with it."

"Found with it?" Sam repeated.

Yana nodded in recollectino. "Yes. An orphan in the storm. I was a naked child found on the coast of the Silver Devastation. Abandoned with only this."

"Ever opened it?"

"Why would I? It's broken."

Sam nodded in concession, not wanting to press the matter. "Is it stuck then?"

Yana made a noise of agreement as Sam took it from him and turned it over in her hands. It had the same engravings as the Doctor's.

Smiling with false calm, she handed it back to him. "It's a nice piece, anyway. Listen, everything's fine up here. I'm gonna see if the Doctor needs me."

She was very careful to control her steps, but as soon as she was out of their hearing range, she dashed off to where the Doctor and Jack were, now in the control room.

"Ah, nearly there. The footprint is a gravity pulse. It stamps down, the rocket shoots up. Bit primitive. It's gonna take the both of us to keep it stable." The Doctor was saying.

Sam moved in front of him while he worked. Doctor, it's the Professor. He's got this watch. He's got a fobwatch. It's the same as Ted's was. It's got the same symbols and everything, too."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"When have you ever known me to be ridiculous?" Sam asked rhetorically. "Besides, I asked him. He said he's had it all his life."

"And? So? But?" Jack said.

"Okay, that sounds silly. But it's not a watch. It's a part of a device which, what was it?, rewrites biology an turns a TIme Lord into a human. And it's the same."

"It can't be."

"Why not?" said Sam.

An alarm blared, and the Doctor ignored her as he tried to fix it. "That means he could be a Time Lord. You might not be the last one."

"Jack, keep it level!" commanded the Doctor.

"Wouldn't that be a good thing?" Sam asked.

"Well, yes, it would be. Of course it would be. Brilliant, fantastic, yeah. But they died, the Time Lords. All of them, they died."

"Apparently not this guy. He was human." Jack pointed out.

"What did he say, Sam? What did he say?" the Doctor yelled.

Sam gasped. "He looked at the watch like he could hardly see it. Like the perception filter."

"How about now? Can he see it now?"

Sam shrugged.

"If he escaped the Time War then it's the perfect place to hide. The end of the universe."

"The Face of Boe did say 'You are not alone'," Sam pointed out, not noticing Jack start at the Face's title.

The Doctor launched the rocket. After confirming that the rocket had achieved escape velocity, her ran from the control room, Sam and Jack following him.

Unbeknownst to them, Yana had already opened the watch and just before they could escape, he threw a lever that closed and locked the main door, ignoring Chantho's protests in the process.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver, while Sam and Jack worked on the keypad. Mentally, Sam reminded herself that she should really get around to making her own sonic screwdriver for occasions such as these.

"Get it open! Get it open!" yelled the Doctor.

* * *

"Not to worry, my dear." Yana assured Chantho back in the lab, who was observing in horror. "As one door closes, another must open." He threw another switch, and the power at the main gate failed, allowing the Futurekind access to the complex.

"Chan, you must stop, tho!"

Yana ignored her as he worked various controls around the lab.

"Chan, but you've lowered the defences! The Futurekind will get in, tho!" she protested, not understanding why he had changed so suddenly.

* * *

The door sprung open and the three rushed through.

* * *

Chantho had resorted to her last measure. "Chan, Professor, I'm so sorry but I must stop you. You're destroying all our work, tho." She held a gun to him, her hand quavering and her heart thundering with emotion.

Yana didn't even seem to care. "Oh…now I can say I was provoked," he held out one of the live cables. "Did you never think, in all those years standing beside me, to ask about that watch? Never? Did you never think, not ever, that you could set me free?"

Chantho was devastated. "Chan, I'm sorry, tho. Chan, I'm sorry, tho," she whimpered pitifully.

"Oh, and cease with the 'chan' and the 'tho' it's driving me insane, you stupid creature!" he snarled at her

"Chan, Professor, please," Chantho tried, but was interrupted.

"Do not call me professor. It is not my name. The Professor…was an invention. He was so perfect a disguise that I forgot who I am, but now I remember."

Chantho was almost afraid to ask, but her love for the Professor compelled her to anyway. "Chan, then who are you, tho?"

"I am the Master," he proclaimed in a low whisper as he thrust the cable forward, effectively killing poor Chantho.

* * *

The Futurekind chased the Doctor, Sam and Jack through the corridors. Jack stopped at an intersecting hallway. "This way!" he called. They arrived at the lab door, finding that it was locked. While Sam worked on the keypad, the Doctr pounded on the window. "Professor! Professor, let me in! Let me in! Sam, hurry up and get that door open! Jack, don't just stand there, help her!"

"Professor! Professor, where are you?! Professor! Professor, are you there?! Please, I need to explain! Whatever you do, don't open that watch!"

The Master was casually removing the circuit board, sneering. "Utopia," he scoffed.

"They're coming!" Jack exclaimed. "Come on Sam"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Sam retorted. "Just a few seconds!"

"Professor!"

The door opened and the three burst in. The Doctor stopped, facing the Master, who backed into the TARDIS, locking it.

Swearing under his breath, the Doctor tried the key but the Master had the presence of mind to flick the deadlock. This done, he headed tot he console,pressing a button that prevented that from working as well.

A few seconds with the sonic screwdriver and he realised that it wasn't going to cut it. "Let me in!" he pounded on the TARDIS. It seemed to be getting to be a habit, all the pounding and begging for entrance he'd been doing today.

Sam, on the other hand, was bend down next to Chantho's lifeless body. "She's gone." she said softly, closing her eyelids.

Inside the TARDIS, the Master was ignoring the Doctor's pleas to let him in. "This body is old, vulnerable," he mused. "Still, if the Doctor can be young and strong, so can I. The Master, reborn!" he proclaimed, pulling the gun he'd taken from Chantho, turning it on himself and firing. He then threw back his head and arms, commencing the regeneration.

The regenerative light was visible even outside the TARDIS, and all the Doctor could do was watch it happening.

"Doctor! You'd better think of something!" Jack yelled at him as he and Sam attempted to hold off the Futurekind, who were pressing against the door.

The TARDIS speakers flared to life. "Doctor," they heard, followed by a very Doctor-like interruption of himself, as he repeated hello in several tones as a test of his new voice. "Anyway, why don't we stop and have a nice little chat while I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me? I don't think so!"

"Wait, I know that voice!" Sam exclaimed, shocked.

"I'm asking you really properly! Just stop! Just think!" The Doctor begged.

"Use my name."

"Master. I'm sorry."

"Tough!" said the Master in reply, starting the controls.

The Doctor held out the sonic screwdriver.

"Doctor, hurry!" Jack yelled as one of the Futurekind reached a hand through the door. "We can't hold it much longer!"

"Doctor, stop him!" Sam yelled in a panic as she realised where the recognised the voice from.

But it was futile. The Doctor could only watch as the TARDIS dematerialised, while Sam and Jack struggled with the door.

**A/N: **Sorry for the wait, but I hope you enjoyed this anyway. Thanks as always to the Transcript providers. There weren't many deviations from the original here, because if there were too many the next two stories wouldn't have ever happened. The responsible thing to do would have been for Sam to a)never draw attention to the watch or b)take it straight to the Doctor until they knew who it was, but then we wouldn't get the wonderful plot of The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords.

I think the story gets a bit darker at this sort of level, so I have upped the rating to 'T'.

Don't forget to check out the new poll on my profile, as it does relate to this story.

Next up: Sound of Drums, and lots of angst.


	9. The Sound Of Drums

**Astrophysics in Action**

**Post Doomsday. What if the Doctor had a different companion? Say… Samantha Carter? Crossover with Stargate: SG-1**

**Chapter Nine: The Sound of Drums**

Rather abruptly, the time vortex appeared in an alleyway and roughly deposited three travellers on the ground. "Oh, my head!" Sam exclaimed, massaging her temples.

The Doctor winced in sympathy. "Time travel without a capsule. It's a killer."

The third traveller, Jack, cracked his neck as the three left the alley. "Still, at least we made it. Earth, late 20th century by the looks of it. Talk about lucky."

"That wasn't luck, that was me," the Doctor said shortly.

Back at the end of the universe, as the Futurekind had been struggling to enter, the Doctor had fixed and activated Jack's vortex manipulator. Jack shrugged, sitting down on a bench. "Well, the moral is, if you're gonna get stuck at the end of the universe, get stuck with an ex-Time Agent and his vortex manipulator."

"We need to find the Master," Sam said distractedly. "He's got the TARDIS, so theoretically he could be anywhere is time and space, but I recognised the voice. I've heard it on TV, but I'm not sure exactly who he is."

"Okay, well, we at least have somewhere to start," said the Doctor. "He's likely insinuated himself into a position of power."

"But because he's a Time Lord, and he must have regenerated, we wouldn't recognise him at all if he walked right by us," Jack pointed out with a frustrated groan.

Sam looked up, noticing an appalling amount of posters with a familiar face on them. She paused a moment in recollection, then in realisation closed her eyes in the hope that when she opened them the problem would go away. Both Jack and the Doctor looked at her worriedly, seeing the colour rush abruptly from her cheeks.

"What is it, Sam?" asked the Doctor.

"We need a newspaper!" she said frantically.

The Doctor and Jack shrugged, confused by the abrupt declaration. "Hey, you finished with the paper?" Sam asked a passerby, who grumbled and tossed it to her. Quickly, she unrolled it and smoothed out the front page, revealing the headline. Sam swore violently.

"Sam, you're going to need to explain," said the Doctor.

"It's the Master, I know who he is."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

Sam shook her head grimly. "President Saxon Reforms Cabinet Following Clinton Assassination!" she read the headline.

The two men paled. "Let me guess, Saxon is the Master?" Jack concluded and Sam nodded grimly.

"I knew I'd heard his voice from somewhere, but I couldn't quite place it," Sam explained.

After some deliberation,they decided that their best course of action would be to return to Sam's apartment, where they could regroup and plan what to do next. Sam switched on the TV to the news as they sat down in the study, Jack hopping on Sam's computer and searching the internet for information about Saxon.

"So who is he to you?" Sam asked the Doctor, her hands curling around a mug of coffee.

"He's a Time Lord."

"And that's it?"

The Doctor sighed obviously reluctant. "We were classmates. Rivals, if you will. Jack, anything?"

"Born and raised in Virginia, and was their Senator until a year or so ago, when Gore died and Clinton chose him as his replacement."

"There was a bit of fuss about him after Gore's death, no-one knew much about him," Sam recalled. "But there were records and stuff going years back, and of course plenty of people who claimed to have known him at school and stuff. He went to Harvard. Got married 18 months ago. He's a little bit off beat, but most people seem to like him well enough."

"Which was about as far back as he could have possibly arrived, since I locked the coordinates before he left. He can only travel between now and the year 100 trillion."

"He may have only arrived 18 months ago, but it sure looks like a hell of a lot longer." Jack said, looking over the information he'd managed to find. "He's got a whole life - at least, on paper."

Suddenly they were interrupted by the TV, announcing that a special broadcast from the President would occur in several moments time. "It is extraordinary how far we have come in a such a small length of time. For hundred of years, the British Empire ruled supreme.

But no longer. In today's society, it is us who have more influence! More power. Many of the newest innovations in technology are coming from here - the United States of America. And it is my infinite pleasure to introduce to you, the citizens of this great nation, the greatest discovery of humankind as yet. I have been contacted from beyond the stars, with a message for humanity."

At this point, he played a video. A large silver sphere glimmered into existence and began to speak. "People of the Earth, we come in peace. We bring great gifts. We bring technology and wisdom and protection. And all we ask in return is your friendship."

The footage cut back to Saxon at his desk. "Isn't that kind? And this alien species has identified itself. They are called the Toclafane."

Hearing this, the Doctor frowned, shaking his head. "What?"

The Master carried on with his speech, "And tomorrow morning they will appear. Not in secret, but to all of you. Diplomatic relations with a new species will begin. Tomorrow, we take our place in the universe. Every man, woman and child. Every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer. And every…oh, I don't know…military officer?"

At his last words, the three immediately realised something was off. A split second later and they realised there was a bomb attached to the back of Sam's TV. Unsure how long they had before it went off, they made a dash for the door, and watched in dismay as the house blew up after them.

"All right?" the Doctor asked them, and they both responded affirmatively.

Sam swallowed heavily. "Doctor, he knows about me. And when he was Yana, I spoke to him about my family. Dad can look after himself, but Granddad is far too old, and Mark and Rachael…" Sam trailed off, worried. "What if he tries to use them to get to me?"

The Doctor closed his eyes briefly to think. "Thom lives here, in Washington, right?"

Sam responded affirmatively.

"And Mark and Rachael are in Denver?"

Again, Sam nodded.

"Alright. We'll go to Thom. Don't call him first, they could be setting up a trap, or tracking your phone. You'll have to take the risk with Mark though - let him know that he should try to get out of the country if at all possible, and for Rassilion's sake, try and keep it short."

Sam nodded shortly and quickly made the call. Although Mark was less than happy to hear from her, she convinced him that it would be safest for him and his family to go, and promised her that they would be on the next flight out. In short time, they arrived at Thom's apartment.

"Granddad!" Sam called, opening the door with her key. "Granddad, are you home?"

There was no response. They made their way into the kitchen and saw a pot of pasta boiling on the stove. "Thom?" Called the Doctor.

There was still no response. "I don't like this," Jack said quietly.

Sam and the Doctor didn't voice it, but they didn't like it either. Thom would have responded by now. Fear clenching in her gut, Sam made her way into Thom's bedroom, then the adjoining bathroom.

"Oh, God," she breathed, sick. "Oh, God, Granddad!"

There, slumped over the sink, was Thomas Carter, blood seeping quietly from a single bullet wound to the head. His lifeless limbs were slack, his eyes open in shock. A post it had been stuck on the mirror, upon which was written 'Dear Sam, Love, The Master.'

The Doctor walked in behind her, and a mournful sigh escaped him. "Sam," he put his arm around her and curled her into his chest. "I'm so, so sorry. Thom was a brilliant man. But it's not your fault, and we can't stay here. This could be the beginning of a war, we don't have time to dwell." They were harsh words, and the Doctor was wary of speaking them.

Sam pulled herself from his arms, and looked like she might explode at him for a moment, before she sniffed, and wiped the tears from her face, snapping into her military persona. "You're right." Turning away from Thom's body, they quickly made their way from the house. "But the danger is worse than what I thought it was, I have to call my father."

"I strongly advise against it," said the Doctor, but Sam already had her phone out.

"Dad?"

"Sam, why are you calling me?"

"Dad, I don't have time for this. Where are you?"

"I'm at the White House."

Sam started. "The White House? What are you doing there?"

"President Saxon invited quite a few important people to the meeting with the Toclafane tomorrow morning." Jacob explained. "There're lots of military personnel, leaders of various rights groups, important political figures. You know, that kind of thing."

Sam frowned at the explanation. "Alright, whatever. Dad, you need to get out. You need to go and hide. Don't go home, go somewhere no one will expect you. Don't tell anyone where you're going,"

"Sam, stop being ridiculous."

"I'm not being ridiculous, Dad! They've already killed Granddad."

Jacob was getting angry. "That's not the kind of thing you joke about, Sam."

"I'm serious! You have to go and hide!" Sam pleaded with him. But she never heard what his reply was.

"Ooh, a nice little game of hide-and-seek. I love that. But I'll find you, Samantha Carter. Been a long time since we saw each other. Must be, what, one hundred trillion years?" The Master was on the other end of the line.

"Saxon!" Sam exclaimed, and the Doctor turned around suddenly at her outburst. "What's your plan for them?"

The Doctor snatched the phone from her hand, pulling it to his own ear. "I'm here," he said simply. Sam and Jack hung impatiently at his side, listening intently.

On the other end, the Master became serious, sitting up straighter in his chair. "Doctor."

"Master."

"I like it when you say my name."

The Doctor shrugged. "You chose it. Psychiatrist's field day."

"And you chose yours. The man who makes people better. How sanctimonious is that?"

"So, President. Most powerful man in the world."

The Master sounded almost like a schoolgirl in response "I know! It's good, isn't it."

The Doctor didn't justify that with an answer. "What are those creatures? I've never seen them before, and there's no such thing as the Toclafane, they're imaginary."

"Do you remember all those fairy tales about the Toclafane when we were kids? Back home? Where is it, Doctor?

"Gone," he admitted.

The Master was displeased with this answer. "How can Gallifrey be gone?"

"It burnt," he said simply.

"And the Time Lords?"

"Dead. And the Daleks… more or less. What happened to you?"

There was a brief pause while the Master gathered his thoughts. "The Time Lords only resurrected me because they knew I'd be the perfect warrior for a Time War. I was there when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform. I saw it. I ran. I ran so far. Made myself human so they would never find me because…I was so scared."

"I know,"

"All of them? But now you, which must mean…"

The Doctor looked into the distance. "I was the only one who could end it. And I tried. I did, I tried everything."

"What did it feel like, though? Two almighty civilisations burning. Oh, tell me, how did it feel?"

The Doctor flinched. "Stop it!"

"You must have been like God." The Master continued, taunting.

"I've been the last one ever since, practically alone. But not anymore. Don't you see? We have each other now, we're the only two Time Lords left."

"And what, you propose we perpetuate the race? Hate to break it to you Doctor, but we need a female for that."

Sam made a face, Jack raised an eyebrow and grinned, and the Doctor completely ignored the remark. "You could stop this right now. We could leave this planet. We could fight across the constellations if that's what you want. But not on Earth."

"Oh, but it's too late."

"Why do you say that?"

"The drumming." The Master replied, drumming his finger on a desk in the background. "I thought it would stop but it never does. Never ever stops. Inside my head, the drumming, Doctor. The constant drumming."

"I could help you," pleaded the Doctor. "Please, let me help."

"It's everywhere. Listen, listen, listen. Here come the drums. Here come the drums. And besides, I don't want your help. You like Earth entirely too much, I thought I might see what all the fuss is."

The Doctor was beginning to get impatient. "Enough. What are those creatures? Tell me!"

The Master merely chuckled, "Ooh, look, you're on TV."

"Stop it! Answer me!"

Sam stopped in her tracks as they passed an electronics store, tugging on the Doctor's arm.

He turned to look. "No, really. You're on the TV! You and your little band. Look, there you are! Ha!"

The three gazed at the TV for a few seconds, listening to the anchor announcing that they were armed and extremely dangerous. "You're public enemies number one, two and three. Oh, and you can tell handsome Jack that I've disposed of his little crew so he won't be getting any help from them."

Jack paled at that: none of them had any doubt what the Master meant when he said he had disposed of them. "Who the hell do you think you are!" he burst out.

The Master laughed. "I'm the Master. Now, go on, run along. Why don't you start by turning to the left?"

Turning to the left, the Doctor spotted a CCTV camera. "He can see us," he explained, even as he pointed his sonic screwdriver at it.

"Oh, you public menace!" the Master taunted. "Better start running. Go on, run!"

"He's got control of practically everything," said the Doctor.

Sam nodded, agreeing. "He's clearly got access to private surveillance devices, it stands to reason he's got access to public ones too."

"Doctor, what do we do?"

"We run." answered the Doctor, as on the other end the Master shouted at him to run for his life.

* * *

Hours later, Sam, Jack, and the Doctor were holed up inside an abandoned warehouse. The Doctor was at the laptop, and Jack was fiddling with his vote manipulator. Sam dumped a pile of takeaway on the table. "I don't think anyone recognised me. How about you?"

"No one recognised us either," Jack joked. "But I don't think anyone saw us."

Sam rolled her eyes.

"According to the news, your family has been taken in for questioning about your activities." The Doctor reported.

"Did it say who, exactly?" Sam queried, digging into the fried rice.

The Doctor shook his head, and quoted. "The family of known terrorist, Samantha Carter, has been taken in for questioning. While some initial resistance was met, it is expected that they will do all they can to preserve the safety of this nation."

Sam frowned, a little bit worried. "Resistance?"

The Doctor merely shrugged. "That's all they said."

Nodding in acceptance, Sam swallowed another mouthful, and exchanged a glance with Jack.

"So, Doctor, who is he? How come the ancient society of Time Lords created a psychopath?"

"And what does he mean to you?" Sam added. "Was he a colleague? Or a friend…"

The Doctor looked into the distance. "A friend, at first."

"But all the legends of Gallifrey made it sound so perfect." Jack interjected. Sam, never having heard such legends, listened in interest as the Doctor waxed poetic about his home planet and the Master seeing eternity through the schism when he was eight.

"You said that the Toclafane were a fairy tale," Sam reminded.

"They are," agreed the Doctor. "Legend has it that the Toclafane are those who gave Time Lords their ability to travel in time, but at the cost of their immortality. Instead of infinite regenerations, the Toclafane took all but twelve and granted Gallifrey with knowledge. And they had the ability to grant and take away regenerations as they pleased, so if you were good they'd give you and extra one and if you were bad they'd take one away, that sort of thing. Pure nonsense, of course, but a good story told to children in order to get them to behave nonetheless."

Sam and Jack looked at him expectantly.

"Oh, come on. I am not telling you two a fairy tale, you're too old for that," protested the Doctor, but neither said anything and he eventually conceded. "Alright, the short version. The story goes that long ago, before time travel was even thought up there lived a Gallian known as Rorvadmoteothertine, or Rorvad for short. He was on his thirteenth life when he fell in love with an alien from Frey by the name of Teyllarbinecadrope, or Teyll. Teyll was of a species that only had one life, and as such, aged appropriately. For a while things were good, and Rorvad and Teyll had a wonderful, mundane life together. They welcomed several children, worked hard for a living. But it was all too soon becoming apparent that Teyll was no longer able to keep up with Rorvad. When visiting her home planet, he was often mistaken for her son. His children were taken for older siblings. When Rorvad went mountaineering or swimming, Teyll was unable to join him because of the pains in her joints. She claimed she didn't mind, but it mattered to Rorvad, and so he went on a quest.

"After finding several ancient objects in a tale worthy of Indiana Jones, he found an object that would allow him to summon a greater power. He called upon the Toclafane, and begged of them not to allow his wife and children to grow old without him. The Toclafane decided to grant him this boon, and he was so grateful that he didn't bother reading the contract before he signed it. Only once he started to age himself did he realise that he had been tricked: instead of his wife and children becoming immortal to match him, he had instead doomed himself and all future generations to only survive the thirteen regenerations that he already had. As time passed, Rorvad's children intermingled with the immortal Gallians, and came to be known as the Gallifreyans. Still, they were unhapppy with their thirteen lives and Rorvad's great time one hundredth grandson, also names Rorvad, summoned the Toclafane once again. 'Make me immortal,' he begged. 'And allow me a chance to rectify my grandfather's error,'. The Toclafane conferred among one another, and decided to grant him this boon. However, Rorvad had not learnt from his ancestor's mistake, and was not specific enough in his demands. The Toclafane gave him the knowledge to travel through time, and infinite lives. A machine was built, and he was sent back in time. However, the Toclafane chose not to allow him to keep his memory, and soon he fell in love with and alien from Frey, who was known as Teyll."

"So he became his own ancestor?" asked Sam.

The Doctor grinned. "And that was the simple version. The full version's got a bit more to it than that. I think they tried to cram as many lessons into one story as they possibly could."

"No kidding," Jack agreed.

Before they could manage to get any more off topic, Jack's manipulator beeped. "Encrypted channel with files attached. I don't recognise it," he announced.

"Patch it through to the laptop," the Doctor instructed.

Jack nodded, taking ahold of the laptop. The Torchwood logo appeared on the screen and the Doctor gaped.

"You work for Torchwood!" he accused.

Jack nodded, a little confused. "Well, my speciality is aliens, their speciality is aliens… it does make sense, you know. What have you got against them?"

It took the Doctor a minute to realise that in Jack's terms, it was nearly a decade before Torchwood would do any of those horrible things that he remembered. He decided not to say anything for now.

A video appeared on the screen. It was a man in his fifties, wearing a suit. "My name is Dennis Ellsworth," he began. "I am a reporter for the Washington Post and I have been charged with the investigation of our newest president. What I found astounded me. If I don't return here by 2200 hours, I've set this file to be emailed automatically to Torchwood. So if you're watching this, I'm afraid I won't… be able to help you. I have attached the relevant documents. In short, Harold Saxon did not exist before 18 months ago. His records are forgeries - very adept ones, but nonetheless. I'm trusting that you'll look into it properly." The message ended abruptly, leaving a blank screen.

"What's this about forgeries?" asked Jack.

"The Master was always very adept at hypontism, he could have easily made a few officials create some records for him." Explained the Doctor. "He's probably got most of the people who work for him under his thumb as well."

"Why didn't you know he was here?" asked Sam, curiously. "I thought you said you could sense other Time Lords."

That made the Doctor start for a moment. "He must have found some way to confuse the signal, probably a low level signal that's active all over the country, if not the whole world." he mused. "But that's hardly our main concern at the moment. What we need to do is figure out exactly what he wants to do and if and how we should stop it."

"If?"

"Well, you can't really commit to stopping someone from doing something if you don't know what it is and whether it's worth stopping - although, knowing him, it probably is."

Keen to move on from this topic, the Doctor hurried on, handing Jack and Sam TARDIS keys to which he had welded bits of circuitry.

"Three TARDIS keys, three pieces of the TARDIS with low-level perception properties because the TARDIS is designed to blend in. Well, sort of, but… Now! Assuming the Master's set up a second low-level signal. Weld the key to the network and… Sam," he stepped back, "look at me. You can see me, yes?"

Sam nodded. "Of course."

"How about now?" he slipped his own key over his neck.

Sam blinked as her eyes slid away from him despite her attempts to look at him. Jack laughed a little in the background.

"No, over here!" called the Doctor. To Sam, his voice sounded somewhat like an echo.

Sam concentrated for a second, but was unable to focus on him. "It's like my perception has been shifted just bit so that I can't notice you."

"Exactly," Agreed the Doctor, taking off the key. "Now, let's go to the White House. Don't run. Don't shout. Just keep your voice down. Draw attention to yourself and the spell is broken. Just keep to the shadows."

"Like ghosts,"

"Yeah, that's what we are. Ghosts."

The three of them slipped the keys around their necks before heading off into the city.

* * *

"And as the eyes of the world turn towards the White House, sources indicate that British Prime Minister James Black has arrived tonight on American soil in a surprise visit. It is said that other world leaders plan to make the trip for the first official alien contact tomorrow morning." Narrated a reporter.

Sam, Jack and the Doctor watched as the Prime Minister and the Master greeted each other. The Master's wife Nancy was also present. In short order, the PM took control of the operation, dictating that the meeting would now take place on the aircraft hangar, the Valiant, and that he would be doing the greeting instead of Saxon.

When the Queen and PM left, Saxon turned to his wife, completely unconcerned by the latest turn of events. "There goes the last Queen of England. We should reach the Valiant within the hour."

The three bystanders were about to leave when the a police car pulled up, and four people were unceremoniously pulled out of the car. Sam gasped in horror on seeing them: it was Mark, Rachael and their children, TIm and Liz.

Jack and the Doctor had to hold Sam back as they were transferred into another car, presumably going to the valiant. After Jack used his armband to work out the coordinates of the ship, they activated the teleport, and found themselves on an enormous ship, surrounded by kilometres of ocean. They hurried along the corridors in search of Sam's family, when the Doctor stopped abruptly, before leading them off in another direction.

Sam let out a whoop of delight on seeing the TARDIS, and all three of them burst inside, before stopping abruptly in shock. It was bathed in red, and making a horrible noise that Sam could only put down to it being ill. Certain parts of the console were caged off, other bits stripped. "Don't touch it!" exclaimed the Doctor.

"Wasn't going to," claimed Jack, and Sam pulled her hand back.

"It can't be. No, no, no, no, no, no, it can't be."

"What's happened?"

"He's cannibalised the TARDIS."

"I don't understand," Sam said. "It's eating itself?"

"No. It's time. He's turned it into a paradox machine. As soon as this hits red, it activates. At this speed, it'll trigger at two minutes past 8:00." Explained the Doctor, looking worried.

"First contact is at 8.00 and the two minutes later," Jack trailed off uncertainly.

"What would he need to sustain a paradox for?" asked Sam.

"Nothing good," Jack hypothesised. "Can you stop it, Doctor?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Not until I know what it's doing. Touch the wrong bit and blow up the solar system."

"Then we'll have to stop the Master," Sam said with a tone of finality.

Jack agreed. "Yeah. How do we stop him?"

The Doctor grinned widely. "Oh, I've got a way. Sorry, didn't I tell you?"

Sam, Jack and the Doctor sidled into the room as the Queen was giving a speech. "For as long as man has looked to the stars, he has wondered what mysteries they hold. Now we know we are not alone…"

"This plan… are you going to tell us?" Jack asked the Doctor significantly as they saw that the smile had faded form the Master's face.

"If I can get this key around the Master's neck…cancel out his perception, they'll see him for real. It's just hard to go unnoticed with everyone on red alert. If they stop me…you've got a key."

Sam and Jack nodded solemnly.

The Queen continued her speech, oblivious. The room was full of world leaders and even a few reporters, all leaning forward in their seats in anticipation. "And I ask you now, I ask of the human race, to join with me in welcoming our friends. I give you the Toclafane." Four large metal spheres appeared in the room, hovering around her head. "I am Queen Elizabeth of England, designated representative of the United Nations. I welcome you to Earth and its associated moon, on behalf of all it's citizens."

"You're not the Master," stated one Toclafane.

"We like the Mr Master," chimed in another.

"We don't like you."

The Queen was quite at a loss at how to respond to this, but handled it well. "I am afraid that you are mistaken. There is no Master."

"Man is stupid,"

"Master is our friend."

"Where's my Master, pretty please?"

Saxon laughed loudly and stood with a dramatic flourish. "Oh, all right then. It's me! Tada!" he laughed again, and rambled about how great he was for moments before he was interrupted by the confused Queen and suddenly turned very dark and serious. "I'm taking control. Now… let's see… kill him!"

Chaos broke out as the Toclafane fired lasers at James Black, the Prime Minister. "Now if you don't shut up and od as your told, Your Majesty," Saxon mocked. "I'll do the same to you." Black dissolved inot nothingness and Saxon faced the camera.

"Now then, peoples of the Earth, please attend carefully," he said, folding his hands together and grinning in a very unsettling manner.

The Doctor rushed forward in an attempt to stop whatever was to happen, but was caught by the guards. "Teleport!" Jack handed Sam the manipulator.

"I won't!" she whispered fiercely.

"You have to!"

But their argument was interrupted by the Master bringing in Sam's family: Jacob, Mark, his wife and his kids. "Lookie what we have for you, Sammie."

"Dad! Mark!" Sam gasped.

"The Toclafane, who are they? Who are they?" the Doctor asked, breathing heavily, far too focused on this to worry about Sam's family.

"Do you really expect me to tell you that, Doctor?" snapped the Master. "Let me have some fun with your 'sister'."

"Leave them alone!" Sam snarled, coming closer to him

The Master laughed. "Oh, I don't think so."

Sam was by this point close enough to him to hit him, and this she did. She elbowed him heavily in the chest, then kicked him in the stomach, making him double over. "You'll pay for that!" he swore. "I'm going to kill your family one by one and you are going to watch. Kill the woman!" he commanded the Toclafane as he straightened.

Mark's wife Rachael disintegrated before their very eyes and Sam was in too much shock to react.

"Is it time?" asked a Toclafane, spinning around as though nothing had happened, as if Sam's family hadn't just been torn apart because of her arrogance. It seemed to her that the world was moving slowly, so slowly around her and guilt invaded her mind. Mark's face, Tim's face as they looked at their wife and mother. Liz, Mark's other daughter, was too young to comprehend where her mother had gone, but was crying anyway.

"Is it ready?" Sam had to make this right. The Doctor's plan to save the world wasn't going to save her sister in law. Jack pulled her back from the Master, pressing the teleport into her hand while the Master was looking at the Toclafane.

"Is the machine singing?" plans whirred through her mind at light speed, but each scenario ended the same way: Rachael was still dead, Mark would never speak to her again, and she doubted her father would either. Not far away, guards cuffed the Doctor's hands and feet, rendering him capable of only watching what was happening.

Saxon checked his watch. "Two minutes past." He mounted the steps and stood by his wife, Nancy. "So! Earthings. Basically, um, end of the world. Here…come…the drums!" As if on cue, music blared from hidden speakers.

The Master was in his element as the Paradox Machine activated. A horrific wound opened in the sky, Toclafane streaming out like blood.

"How many do you think there are?" The Master asked his wife.

She shrugged in response. "Millions."

"Six billion," he corrected. "Down you go kids!"

The Toclafane descended upon the earth like a plague.

"Shall we decimate them? That sounds good. Nice word—decimate." He now spoke to the Toclafane. "Remove one-tenth of the population!"

Sam could only cry. The Doctor had tears coming from his own eyes, she could see, and she could hear Jack muffled sobs beside her. Distress calls were radioing in from all around the globe, screaming the horrors of the Toclafane.

"Go!" Jack said again, forcing her to take ahold of the teleport. "We'll be fine, but we need to out of here."

Sobbing, Sam nodded and depressed the button, taking one last look at her family and friends before disappearing entirely from the ship. She landed in a clearing, and looking up she could see hundreds of Toclafane flying about, killing anything that got in their way.

"I'll fix this," she vowed.

* * *

AN: So, um, yes. It's been a while… I killed a lot of people in this chapter. I was very sad to see Thom and Rachael go. I was also tempted to kill Mark's kids, but I couldn't bring myself to do it when it came down to it.

My use of real people in this chapter: Yes, I am aware is it technically not allowed on this site, but I figured the brief mentions of political figures would be alright. I used a different PM for Britain. I did leave the queen as the same person though, since I figured changing her name would be completely pointless. More on the real people… I also killed Al Gore and Bill Clinton. It was the easiest way to get the Master into office. I didn't want to do the whole hypnotising everyone into it thing either, since this was more than ten years before it happened in canon, and I didn't think it entirely feasable. Also, it would be more than a little bit boring. In my version he was a bit more cunning, hypnotising only a few people in order to create believable records and get himself established. Then he had those in his way assassinated, which I think would be a far better way to go about it. If you don't like it, please PM me about your concerns and I'll try fix it.

I know, I'm horrible. I don't update for months, and when I do I go on a killing spree. I think you've all realised by now that updates aren't going to be on any sort of regular schedule, but rest assured that I am not planning to abandon this story. Obviously, I will be doing Last of the Time Lords after this. I haven't decided whether or not to do The End of Time, but it was awesome…


End file.
